The Supreme Court on Monday stayed a Madras High Court judgment to field only native bulls for jallikattu events.
A Bench led by Justice Indira Banerjee froze the operation of the Madras HC decision from August last year in an appeal filed by the Tamil Nadu government represented by advocate D. Kumanan. It also issued a notice to the respondent, E. Seshan, on whose petition the High Court had pronounced the verdict.
The High Court had directed the State to ensure that only native breeds exclusively participated in jallikattu events. The judgment had prohibited entry to imported, hybrid/cross bulls. The participants had to produce veterinary documents certifying that the bulls were native breeds.
The High Court had gone so far as to direct the State to “encourage bull owners/farmers to groom native breeds by way of subsidy or incentives”. The verdict had also directed that artificial insemination of the animals, denying them “mating rights”, should be avoided as far as possible as it amounted to cruelty under the provisions of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act of 1960.
In February 2018, the apex court had referred to a Constitution Bench the question whether the people of Tamil Nadu could preserve jallikattu as their cultural heritage under Article 29 (1) of the Constitution and demand for its protection.
The Supreme Court had referred to a five-judge Bench a batch petitions filed by People for Ethical Treatment of Animals and activists to strike down the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Tamil Nadu Amendment) Act of 2017 and Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Conduct of Jallikattu) Rules of 2017.
These petitioners had contended that the amended laws had opened the gates for the conduct of the event in the name of culture and tradition despite a 2014 ban by the Supreme Court.
