The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to entertain a plea for urgent hearing of a petition seeking a ban on cow slaughter across the country ahead of Bakrid on May 28.

A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi questioned why the urgency was felt only two days before the festival.

“Day after tomorrow is Bakrid, so we are seeking to have a hearing tomorrow so that if your lordships are persuaded, an interim order can be passed," advocate Barun Kumar Sinha pleaded on behalf of petitioner Satish Kumar Aggarwal, former vice-president of the Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha.

“You remember this a day before? There is no urgency,” CJI Kant said and proceeded to take up other items on the day’s cause list.

With the top court declining any out-of-turn hearing, the matter is likely to be listed after Bakrid.

Aggarwal submitted that the cow was sacred for Hindus, Jains and Buddhists and slaughtering it was contrary to several state Acts. The Supreme Court had in 2005 prohibited cow slaughter in public places in violation of statutory norms, the petitioner pointed out.

The petitioner has sought a direction to all states and Union Territories to enforce anti-slaughter laws to protect cows and calves, and for authorities to notify guidelines for regulating slaughterhouses in their respective jurisdictions and initiate action against those refusing to comply.

According to the petition, the apex court had in 2005, "after an elaborate consideration of the constitutional, social, economic, cultural, and scientific aspects concerning cow protection, upheld the validity of legislative measures imposing a complete ban on cow slaughter" in the “State of Gujarat vs Mirzapur Moti Kureshi Kassab Jamat" case.

“The present petition is being instituted in larger public interest with the object of ensuring due compliance with the aforesaid binding judgment and to secure faithful implementation thereof by the respondent authorities throughout the country,” the petitioner argued.

Aggarwal claimed that the respondent authorities had failed to effectively implement and enforce the judgment.

The inaction has encouraged illegal cow slaughter in different parts of the country, causing “grave injury to the sentiments and fundamental beliefs of the petitioner and members of the Hindu, Jain and Buddhist communities”, he submitted.

The petitioner claimed there were several unlicensed slaughter centres in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Bengal, Jharkhand, Odisha, the northeastern states, Maharashtra and Punjab.

“Further, the slaughtering of cows and their progeny in open areas is creating law and order issues, apart from causing hygiene and environmental problems. Therefore, slaughterhouses are required to be regulated strictly in accordance with the existing laws," the petitioner said.

"The cow is regarded as a sacred animal by Hindus and has been worshipped since time immemorial. The killing of cows by butchers deeply hurts the religious sentiments and beliefs of Hindus. Therefore, the sacrifice of cows by any person belonging to any community deserves to be prohibited.

"The state governments are under a constitutional obligation to enforce the judgment of this Hon’ble Court in State of Gujarat vs Mirzapur Moti Kureshi Kassab Jamat read with the existing laws relating to animal protection,” the petition added.