The Supreme Court on Monday stayed the Madras High Court’s order imposing a blanket ban on slaughter of cows and calves in Tamil Nadu on the basis of an August 1976 government order.Acting on the Tamil Nadu Government’s petition challenging the May 27 order of the Madras High Court, a Bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta issued notice to Indu Makkal Katchi youth wing secretary K Surya alias K Surya Prasanth on whose petition the high court had passed the impugned order.The top court noted that the last paragraph of the high court’s order (which imposed a state-wide ban on cow slaughter), prima facie required “correction.”On behalf of the state government, senior counsel AM Singhvi submitted that the Madras High Court’s order went against the Tamil Nadu Animal Preservation Act, 1958, which permitted slaughter of cows aged over 10 years unfit for work and breeding on the basis of a certificate issued by the competent authority.In its May 27 order, the high court had directed the state Chief Secretary and the Director General of Police to ensure that no cow or calf was slaughtered in the state either on the eve of Bakrid on May 28, or on any other day.The high court order was based on a 1976 order that prohibited cow slaughter in the interest of milk production and improvement of rural economy.The high court cited Article 48 of the Constitution which required the State to take steps for prohibiting the slaughter of cows, calves and other milch and draught cattle.Contrary to the blanket ban on the slaughter of cows and calves anywhere on any day in Tamil Nadu, the state government wanted cow slaughter to be allowed at designated places only.