The Supreme Court of India(SCI)on Thursday January 21,2016 declined three petitions filed by private
individuals to review its May 7, 2014 judgment banning jallikattu
(bull-taming sport) as an inherently cruel act.
In a decision taken in their chambers, a Bench of Justices V. Gopala
Gowda and P.C. Ghose refused to entertain the petitions in line with the
court’s recent order to stay a January 7, 2016 government notification
allowing the sport. The petitioners were Arulmigu Muppillisamy Temple,
Tamil Nadu Parampariya Veera Vilayattu Mattu Vandi Kaalaigal State
Welfare Association and J.K. Ritheesh from Tamil Nadu. However, Tamil
Nadu’s review petition, filed on May 19, 2014, is still pending.
On January 12,2016 a Bench of Justices Dipak Misra and N.V. Ramana refused
to budge despite impassioned arguments from the Centre and Tamil Nadu
that a festival intrinsic to the culture and tradition of a State could
not be prohibited, especially when the 2016 notification put in place
safeguards to prevent the cruel treatment of animals.
“What is the necessity of such a festival [jallikattu]... there was no
festival for four years,” Justice Misra had shot back before staying the
government notification.
Ordering interim stay, the Bench had also issued notice to the Centre
and Tamil Nadu government to respond to a batch of petitions led by
Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) against the 2016 notification. Some
of them have even sought contempt of court action against the Centre.
The 2014 ban issued by a Bench led by Justice K.S. Radhakrishnan had
held that jallikattu, bullock cart race and other such events “per se
violate the Prevention of Cruelty of Animal (PCA) Act”.
Consequently, bulls were banned from being used as “performing animals” either for jallikattu events or bullock-cart races in the States of Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra or elsewhere in country
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