{"id":90332,"date":"2026-02-27T17:32:57","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T12:02:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=90332"},"modified":"2026-02-27T17:32:57","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T12:02:57","slug":"article-48-of-indian-constitution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/article-48-of-indian-constitution\/","title":{"rendered":"Article 48 of Indian Constitution, Meaning, Provisions, Case Laws"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Article 48 of Indian Constitution is a part of the Directive Principles of State Policy.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It directs the government to take steps to <\/span><b>organize agriculture and animal husbandry in a modern way.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It also emphasizes prohibiting the slaughter of cows, calves and other milch and draught cattle, to promote animal welfare and protect important cattle for agriculture.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Article 48 of Indian Constitution<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><b>Article 48: Organisation of agriculture and animal husbandry<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The State shall endeavour to organise agriculture and animal husbandry on modern and scientific lines and shall, in particular, take steps for preserving and improving the breeds and prohibiting the slaughter of cows and calves and other milch and draught cattle.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Constitutional Provisions on Animal Welfare and Rights<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Directive Principles of State Policy in Part IV of the Indian Constitution guide the government on what it should do to create a better society. Two important articles focus on animals:<\/span><b> Article 48 and Article 48A.<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Article 48<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> asks the government to protect animals and prevent cruelty. It also encourages improving agriculture and caring for the environment.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Article 48A<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> focuses on factory farming. It says animals should not be used for slaughter or experiments in large-scale farms where over 1,000 animals are kept (added by<\/span><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/42nd-constitutional-amendment-act\/\" target=\"_blank\"> 42nd Amendment Act 1976<\/a><\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">).<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Article 48 of Indian Constitution Incorporation<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/indian-independence-act-1947\/\" target=\"_blank\">India\u2019s independence in 1947<\/a><\/strong>, there were public discussions about protecting cows from slaughter, as they were considered important for the country\u2019s economy and culture. Many groups and state assemblies supported anti-cow slaughter measures. The issue became controversial and was taken up in the Constituent Assembly.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Drafting Committee, headed by <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/dr-br-ambedkar\/\" target=\"_blank\">B.R. Ambedkar<\/a><\/strong>, studied the matter. He explained that fundamental rights apply only to humans, so it would not be right to include animal protection as a fundamental right that people must follow.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To solve this, Article 48 was placed under the Directive Principles of State Policy (Part IV of the Constitution). This means the state is encouraged to protect animals and promote scientific farming, but it is not a legally enforceable right for citizens.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Article 48 of Indian Constitution Case Laws<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Several important court cases have clarified how Article 48 works in India.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Abdul Hakim Qureshi v. State of Bihar (1961): <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The petitioner argued that banning cow slaughter in states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh violated Article 25, which guarantees religious freedom for non-Hindus. During Bakr-id, Muslims traditionally sacrifice cows. The <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/supreme-court-of-india\/\" target=\"_blank\">Supreme Court<\/a><\/strong> said that sacrificing a cow is not compulsory in Islam. Muslims can also sacrifice goats or camels. Therefore, the total ban on cow slaughter does not violate religious freedom.<\/span><\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>State of Gujarat v. Mirzapur Moti Kureshi Kassab (2005): <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Supreme Court emphasized that Article 48 specifically protects cows. It also noted that animals that have served humans for generations should be treated with care, even if they are no longer useful. The Court highlighted that animals should be treated kindly and compassionately, reflecting the spirit of Articles 48 and 51A, and recognizing that animals have certain rights deserving protection.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Article 48 of Indian Constitution directs the State to modernize agriculture, improve cattle breeds and prohibit cow slaughter to protect animal welfare.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":90315,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[786],"tags":[5779,5560,5484,5485],"class_list":{"0":"post-90332","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-general-studies","8":"tag-article-48-of-indian-constitution","9":"tag-constitution","10":"tag-polity","11":"tag-polity-notes","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90332"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90332\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90340,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90332\/revisions\/90340"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}