Urging the Supreme Court not to shut the door on jallikattu, the Centre on Thursday said the tradition was inextricably linked to the rural life of Tamil Nadu. Villagers could not be expected to shed their centuries-old culture and “go watch Formula One racing.”
“And the bull can hardly be expected to be ecstatic about the suffering and pain it undergoes in the name of jallikattu,” a Bench of Justices Dipak Misra and Rohinton Nariman retorted.
The government was defending its January 7, 2016, notification bringing bulls back into the fold of ‘performing animals,’ circumventing the 2014 Supreme Court ban on jallikattu.
The Supreme Court, in a judgment in 2014, had classified jallikattu as “inherent cruelty.”
On November 16, the Bench dismissed the Tamil Nadu government’s review petition against the 2014 judgment. It had said that the very act of “taming a bull” was counter to the concept of welfare of the animal under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act of 1960.
“Can you, by an executive notification, remove the foundation of our judgment? You have indirectly tried to remove the very base of the judgment,” Justice Misra observed. The court said the government had to respond on this point on December 7, the next date of hearing.
‘Stringent conditions’
Justice Nariman said the Supreme Court had already declared jallikattu illegal.
“With this notification, I [the Centre] have re-defined jallikattu. I have placed stringent prior checks and conditions for its conduct. I was also against the way jallikattu was practised before its ban in 2014,” Additional Solicitor General P.S. Narasimha, for the Centre, submitted.
“Do your conditions prevent a bull from standing for hours under the scorching sun or standing in narrow enclosures? Do they prevent the animals from being pulled by their nose rings,” Justice Nariman asked.
When Mr. Narasimha submitted how families had been dedicated to breeding jallikattu bulls, Justice Misra reacted: “But for what purpose?”
“But there will be no alcohol given to the bulls now, nor will anyone hang on to their humps or horns,” Mr. Narasimha urged. “Then what remains [of jallikattu],” Justice Nariman asked sarcastically.
