Order to hand over cattle consignment

CHANDIGARH, Jan 25: In the civil writ petition alleging the sending of cattle to slaughter houses in West Bengal or Bangladesh, a Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court today directed the railway authorities to hand over the consignment of 600 cows to the consignees.

Pronouncing the orders in the open court, Justice R.S. Mongia and Justice S.S. Sudhalkar of the High Court observed: quot;Considering the fact that the cattle may suffer and may even die because of vagaries of weather etc, we vacate the directions given on January 15, 1999 8230;.quot;They added: quot;In case the petitioners are in possession of the consignment of the cattle, then the petitioner would hand over the consignment in question to the consigneesquot;.

The High Court had earlier directed the chief goods supervisor and the station supervisor at railway station Howara against delivering 600 cattle heads to the consignees till further orders.