Jallikattu legalised in Tamil Nadu after Assembly passes Bill

Titled Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Tamil Nadu Amendment) Act 2017, the new bill amended Section 2 of PCA and inserted ‘jallikattu means an event involving bulls conducted to follow tradition and culture from January to May and in such places as may be notified by the State government and includes manjuviratu, vadamadu and eruduvidumvizha. 

The resolution for amending the bill was moved by Chief Minister O Panneerselvam. Amendments were also made to Sections 3, 11, 22, 27 and 28A of PCA 1960. Opposition parties including DMK, Congress, IUML, MMK and Mukukuthoor Puli Padai welcomed the amendments. 

Leader of the Opposition MK Stalin while stating that the party welcomed the bill said that the day’s agitation could have been avoided if protesters were called for dialogue instead of resorting to the police brutality.  

Referring to the chain of events which led to the current bill Panneerseelvam said the Supreme Court stayed jallikattu as it was found to contravene Sections 3, 11, and 22 of the PCA and felt an exemption was necessary to ensure the conduct of jallikattu. Accordingly, the PCA (TN amendment) ordinance 2017 was promulgated by the Governor on January 21 and published in the state government gazette the same day.

The Madras High Court on taking strong exception to the shoddy handling of the peaceful pro-jallikattu protests and pushing public to severe hardship, has directed the Director General of Police to ensure the safety of the public as well as the protesters. 

Justice R Mahadevan while hearing a criminal original petition moved by two protesters — G Pavendhan and Senthilkumar — seeking for a direction to stop the police from harassing them, sought to know as to why the protesters were lathicharged when they were protesting peacefully. 

However, observing that its open to the police to check untoward incidents, the judge sought R Sankarasubbu, the counsel appearing for the protesters, about the conclusion of the protest in the wake of the ordinance in jallikattu’s support. He then adjourned the case to Tuesday. 

While Sankarasubbu submitted that the peaceful protests since January 15 has been rendered violent by the police themselves, Advocate General R Muthukumaraswamy, argued that the protesters despite being shown a copy of the ordinance, refused to leave the Marina resulting in stone pelting and subsequent lathicharge. 

Earlier, the first bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice M Sundar refused to entertain a mention seeking judicial intervention on the issue saying, “The court can’t interfere in administrative matters.” However, based on a subsequent mention by senior advocates R Gandhi and V Suresh about police attack on the protesters, said since a single judge is already seized of the matter, we will see as to what can be done on Tuesday.