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Synopsis

The Allahabad High Court granted bail on May 14, 2024, to four men accused of issuing unauthorized 'Halal certificates' for various products.

An FIR filed last year highlighted the issuance of these certificates without legal authority, leading to illicit gains. The FIR, lodged at Police Station Hazratganj, District Lucknow, under Sections 120-B, 153-A, 298, 384, 420, 467, 468, 471, 504 of the IPC named several Halal certification bodies, trusts, and unidentified individuals, including the Trust Halal Council of India.

The informant stated that issuance of such certificates was hurting the religious sentiments of the people as not only they were being issued without any authority of law but also unauthorized gains were being made.

It was also alleged that these organizations were attempting to manipulate market conditions for a specific community and disrupt market equilibrium by fraudulently issuing such certificates. Consequently, sales were adversely impacted.

Moreover, the informant alleged that these actions were creating enmity between communities and that the economic gains were being diverted towards various terrorism-related activities.

Advocate Vikas Vikram Singh, representing the present accused/applicants namely Muhammed Tahir Zakir Chauhan, Mohammed Anwar Muhammed Ali Khan, Maulana Habib Yusuf Patel, and Muddassir Mohammed Iqbal Sapadia, argued before the high court that despite complying with a notice issued under Section 91 of the CrPC on December 6, 2023, which soug ht evidence from the signatories of the Halal Council of India, the applicants were unexpectedly arrested on February 13, 2024, after providing all requested information.

Adv Singh averred that the FIR in the present case was concocted, conjectural, and orchestrated.

He also brought on record that the authority to issue Halal certificates and the two notifications issued by the State of Uttar Pradesh was challenged by four other petitioners before the Supreme Court of India in the case of 'Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind Halal Trust Versus State of Uttar Pradesh' wherein, interim protection was given to the petitioners therein and notices were issued to the respondents, and the interim protection was to the effect that no coercive action shall be taken.

In the said petition, the FIRs filed were also challenged.

In light of the same, Adv Singh contended that on one hand, the co-accused had been given protection by the Supreme Court, whereas the applicants, who were co-operating and providing the information had been arrested.

He apprised the court that the Director General of Foreign Trade has issued circulars in terms of the powers vested by virtue of Foreign Trade Development and Regulation Act authorizing various bodies, who can issue Halal certificates after getting themselves accredited by a body for which norms were also prescribed.

He argued that even before the time for getting accreditation expired, the applicants were arrested.

He also filed an undertaking on behalf of the applicants that if the applicants are enlarged on bail, they would not issue any certificate either personally or through the Trust.

The bail pleas of the four applicants were opposed by the Additional Advocate General who argued that the functions which are in the domain of sovereign authorities either under the Food Safety Act or the other regulatory mechanism, the applicants' private Trust tried to encroach upon those by proclaiming that they had authority to issue such certificates. He alleged that in the said process, an effort was made to unsettle the financial equilibrium in favour of the persons, who were obtaining the certificates and to the detriment of the persons, who were not obtaining those.

To demonstrate, he placed on record a document to show that even in respect of "Tulsi", which is essentially a plant, a Halal certificate had been issued.

He contended that the said act of the applicants would have grave economic consequences if allowed to continue.

Considering the submissions made and without going into the merits of the arguments, the single judge bench of Justice Pankaj Bhatia, in view of the interim protection granted to co-accused persons by the Supreme Court, allowed the bail applications. Court also took into account the undertaking given by the applicants. 

Court ordered the applicants to be released on bail on their furnishing personal bonds and two reliable sureties of Rs.1,00,000 each  to the satisfaction of the court concerned.

Case Title: Muhammed Tahir Zakir Chauhan v. State of UP and Connected Matters