Jallikattu notification: Tamil Nadu files caveat in SC

With five days left for Pongal and the villages getting ready for jallikattu, legal experts feel that the Supreme Court will not take lightly to its lengthy verdict being thwarted by a mere notification. It is now a bygone conclusion that agencies like Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) and Peta will approach the court on Monday to get the notification struck.  The Supreme Court for its part is bound to hear them especially with the ‘backdoor notification’ being a bolt on its judgement. The Supreme Court in its 2014 order had struck down the TN Regulation of Jallikattu Act, 2009 after pointing out as to how this ‘uncivilised event’ violates the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PCA) Act and stalls the constitutional duty of treating animals with compassion. 

The arguments in favour of jallikattu merely dwells on it being a traditional and cultural sport that needs to be safeguarded for posterity. However, the SC citing that the whole sport in its present form has nothing to with the traditional bull-taming of yore, had also cited international rights jurisprudence to stress the need to ‘correct anthropocentric views’ and that the ‘animals have the right to live dignified lives’. 

Unless anti-jallikattu activists file fresh petitions against the latest notification, the Supreme Court will be unable to interfere in the matter.