Solicitor General Tushar Mehta on January 20 said he was “shocked” that products other than meat had received halal certification, including cement, iron bars, water bottles, wheat flour, and chickpea flour. The comments were made during a Supreme Court hearing in the challenge to the UP government’s ban on halal-certified products.
On November 18, 2023, the Office of the Commissioner, Food Safety and Drug Administration, Uttar Pradesh, had issued a notification “prohibiting the manufacturing, storage, sale, and distribution of food products with halal certification within the State of Uttar Pradesh” with an exception provided for export products.
What exactly is halal food? Who issues halal certificates? What are the arguments for and against such certificates? And what has the SC done so far?
What does ‘halal’ mean?
Halal is an Arabic word that loosely translates to ‘permissible’ in English. In the Quran, the term ‘halal’ is contrasted with the term ‘haram’ — meaning ‘forbidden’ — and is used to designate the categories of lawful (and allowed) and unlawful (and forbidden).
The term is particularly associated with Islamic dietary laws to refer to food that is procured, processed, and traded in compliance with Islamic belief. It is similar to the ‘kashrut’ dietary rules followed by orthodox Jews, who only consume food that is ‘kosher’, i.e. permitted in Jewish law.
The two items of food that are most commonly considered haram (non-halal) are pork (pig meat) and intoxicants (alcohol). Even meats that are not pork must satisfy specific requirements relating to their source, the way the animal was killed, and how it was processed, to qualify as halal.
When is meat halal?
In the Indian context, halal is mostly used to refer to the slaughtering technique used by Muslims.
This involves killing the livestock or poultry through a single cut to the jugular vein, carotid artery (which carries blood from the brain to the heart and vice versa), and the windpipe with a sharp knife at the front of the neck. Animals must be alive and healthy at the time of slaughter, and all blood must be drained from the carcass. During the process, recitation of prayers, known as shahada, is also prescribed.
This is in contrast to the ‘jhatka’ method, preferred by many Hindus and Sikhs, which involves delivering a powerful, single blow to the back of the animal’s neck, decapitating it. Jhatka specifically involves stunning animals prior to slaughter, a practice that is not allowed in Islam. Most meat shops owned by Muslims announce their products as ‘halal’ whereas those owned by Hindus or Sikhs declare themselves as ‘jhatka’ establishments.
Can non-meat products also be halal?
Despite the popular usage mentioned above, halal simply means ‘permissible’ in Islamic law — this does not have to do with meat at all. So vegetarian food would be generally considered permissible or ‘halal’, unless it contains alcohol. So would fish and shellfish.
The meaning can also go beyond food, and technically, any consumable item can be deemed halal or haram, depending on whether they are produced in accordance with Islamic law. For instance, medicines often use animal byproducts to create casings or capsules. The halal/haram consideration would be important in such a situation, as Muslims do not want to consume capsules containing pig-fat gelatin.
Similarly, the term may also be used in the context of personal care products, packaging materials, animal feed, etc.
Who issues halal certificates?
Though there is no official regulator for providing halal certification in India, certain groups and companies, including the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind and Halal India Private Limited, are empowered to certify products as halal. Both bodies are parties before the Supreme Court challenging the UP ban.
Halal India and the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind Halal Trust have been permitted to provide halal certification by the National Accreditation Board for Certification Bodies (NABCB). This board is empowered to provide accreditation to certification bodies. These bodies are also recognised internationally. For example, certification from Halal India is recognised by Qatar’s Ministry of Public Health, the UAE’s Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology, and Malaysia’s Department of Islamic Development, among others.
Why was the Uttar Pradesh ban issued?
A week before the ban order was issued, on November 11, 2023, an FIR was lodged by a BJP Youth Wing member stating that “some companies have started certifying products as halal in order to increase their sale among a community” and were “toying with the public’s faith”. During the recent SC hearing, SG Mehta also submitted that certification agencies have made “few lakh crores” providing halal certificates. The ban order issued on November 18 also stated that halal-certification was a “parallel system that created confusion about the quality of food items”.
A day after the ban was announced on November 18, the UP Food Safety and Drug Administration conducted raids at shopping malls, grocery shops, and other retail outlets across the state to seize halal-certified products. In December 2023, BJP MLA Nitesh Rane called for a ban on halal certification in Maharashtra as well, along the lines of the UP ban, alleging that the money was being collected to fund terrorism.
Both Halal India and the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind challenged the ban order at the Supreme Court in December 2023 and January 2024 respectively. The Indian Express reported that the plea filed by Halal India states that the order and the FIR “have had nationwide repercussions that have particularly affected a certain religious minority i.e., the Islamic community” and has created the apprehension that other states may replicate the UP government’s actions. It also states that the allegations in the FIR are “without any iota of truth or any evidence” and are “false and baseless and are based only on hearsay and the FIR has primarily been lodged only to target a particular community”.
The plea filed by the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind states that the UP government “employed a complete misreading of law of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006” and that there is “no bar in law to issue a label/information/claim that is truthful and not misleading such as the Halal certification done by the Petitioner Trust herein”. It also states that the order violates the concept of secularism as it only targets halal certification “when different other similarly placed certifications such as Satvik, Jain, Kosher and Vegan similarly exist but have not been touched”.
The case so far
The Supreme Court initially suggested that the petitioners approach the Allahabad HC. However, the petitioners argued that the notification could have pan-India ramifications and the SC agreed to hear the plea, issuing notice to the UP government on January 5, 2024.
A bench of Justices B R Gavai and Sandeep Mehta also directed that “no coercive action” be taken against the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind Halal Trust in connection with the case on January 25, 2024, effectively protecting the office bearers from arrest until the case is decided. This protection was later extended to Halal India as well.
In January this year, the Ministry of Commerce & Industry at the Centre filed an affidavit stating that it has “no role or authority” regarding the FIR or the halal-certification ban order. It also states that “accreditation by NABCB…does not grant any special authorization or exclusive rights for issuing Halal Certificates in flagrant violation of provisions of law”.
The petitioners have been given four weeks to file a response and the next hearing is scheduled for March 24.
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