The attempt to score electoral points by reviving jallikattu on election eve in Tamil Nadu came to naught as the Supreme Court stayed a central government notification allowing bull-taming and bullock cart racing.
The NDA government had on January 7 issued a notification allowing the two sports in TN, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana and Gujarat.
The ruling AIADMK and opposition DMK in TN had welcomed the move, which lifted the ban imposed on the two harvest season traditional sports by the Centre's July 11, 2011 notification. There were many petitions, including those by Animal Welfare Board of India and NGO `Compassion Unlimited Plus Action', which challenged the revival of jallikattu and bullock cart racing. Many senior advocates--C A Sundaram, K K Venugopal Sidharth Luthra, Anand Grover and Dushyant Dave --pitched in to term the January 7 notification a clear violation of the SC's May 7 2014 order that had upheld the Centre's 2011 notification banning the two traditional sports.
A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and N V Ramana asked, “What is the necessity to revive such a festival? There was no such festival for the last four years.“
Attorney general Muku Rohatgi said the notification provided for an elaborate mechanism to ensure tha animals were not tortured or physically harmed during the traditional sports. “A certain breed of bull is used for these sports and if it is banned, then this breed will have no use and go extinct,“ the AG said.
Finding the going tough the AG took a final shot, “The regulations are so stringent that the bulls will never come to harm or injury . Maybe the men participating in jallikattu can get injured or even die This is unlike bull fighting in Spain where either the animal is speared to death or the men get gored to death. It is a traditional sport of taming the bull with bare hands by at tempting to arrest its run by holding on to its hump.“
But the bench remained unconvinced. It issued notices to the Centre and states seeking their response to the PILs against jallikattu and bullock cart racing in four weeks. “In the meantime, operation of the central notification of January 7 will remain stayed,“ the SC ordered This means, there will be neither of the two activities no jallikattu or bullock cart racing this year.
The Centre's July 11, 2011 notification banning jallikattu and bullock cart racing terming both these two sports as violating the provisions of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PCA) Act was the centre of the debate be fore the SC.
The SC on May 7, 2014 had delivered its judgment holding that Animal Welfare Board of India was “right in its stand that jallikattu, bullock cart race and such events per se violate Sections 3, 11(1) a) and 11(1)(m)(ii) of PCA Act and hence we uphold the July 11, 2011 notification issued by the Centre. Consequently, bulls cannot be used as performing animals, either for the jallikattu events or bullock cart races in the state of Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra or elsewhere in the country“.
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