HC says animals shouldn’t be named after God, urges Bengal govt to change names of lioness ‘Sita’ and lion ‘Akbar’

Last week, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) had filed a writ petition in the High Court claiming that naming the lioness after Goddess Sita and the lion after Mughal Emperor Akbar at the North Bengal Wild Animals Park in Siliguri was “irrational”, “illogical” and “tantamount to blasphemy”.

While hearing the matter on Thursday, the single bench of Justice Saugata Bhattacharya urged the state government to consider giving the two big cats some other names to ensure that the “controversy is put to rest”.

The court observed that Sita is worshipped by a large majority of people in the country and Akbar was an efficient, successful and secular Mughal Emperor.

“Mr counsel, will you name your pet after some Hindu God or Muslim Prophet… I think, if any of us had been the authority, none of us would have named them Akbar and Sita. Can any of us think of naming an animal after Rabindranath Tagore? Sita is worshipped by a larger section of this country… I also oppose naming the lion after Akbar. He was an efficient, successful, and secular Mughal Emperor,” the judge said.

“I was thinking… whether an animal can be named after a God, a mythological character, a hero, freedom fighters or even Nobel laureates? Can a lion be named after Swami Vivekananda or Ramkrishna Paramhans? Can this be done? Though we aren’t considering the issue but think about it. We aren’t talking about the names of the pet animals of an officer of the zoo department. But you are a welfare and a secular State, why should you draw a controversy by naming a lion after Sita and Akbar?” the judge remarked.

The court also directed the reclassification of the writ petition as PIL, saying the nature of the petition espoused the rights of a large group of people. Claiming that naming the lioness after Sita, worshipped by many Hindus, would hurt their religious sentiments, the court said the plea would have to be reclassified as a PIL.

On Wednesday, while hearing the VHP’s plea for the first time, the court asked the state government to submit a report.

The state counsel on Thursday submitted that the naming of the lions had taken place in Tripura, and it was the responsibility of the Tripura Zoo authorities. The state counsel also said that the VHP’s writ petition was maintainable as there was no element of personal rights of the petitioners being involved, and that the State itself was looking into the possibility of renaming the lions.

Earlier, the West Bengal Forest Department had denied naming the lion and lioness as ‘Sita’ and ‘Akbar’. It maintained that the two big cats were brought to Siliguri zoo from Tripura’s Sepahijala Zoo along with eight other animals, as part of an animal exchange programme on February 12. The Tripura zoo officials had said the big cats’ names were ‘Ram’ and ‘Sita’ as per official records.

“The court expressed its strong displeasure over the naming of the lioness as Sita and a lion as Akbar,” advocate Subhankar Dutta, who appeared on behalf of the VHP, said, adding the matter is likely to be taken up by the regular bench of the Calcutta High Court in 10 days.