T.N.’s new jallikattu law faces challenge in Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on January 25 agreed to hear a plea by the Animal Welfare Board of India, Compassion Unlimited Plus Action and animal rights activists to stay the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Tamil Nadu Amendment) Bill, 2017 passed by the State Assembly.

Petitioner’s arguments:

• The challenge termed the amendment a “fraud” on the Constitution and a violation of a 2014 Supreme Court judgment, which had declared jallikattu as an “inherently cruel” event practised on bulls.


• It described jallikattu as an “extremely violent” event where untrained persons either volunteer or are “coerced” into taming or fighting terrified bulls agitated by the organisers and the crowd.
• The challenge said every year many individuals get seriously injured or are killed by the bulls while participating or watching the event. 

Background:

The development comes a day after Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi informed the Supreme Court that the government would file an interlocutory application seeking the withdrawal of the January 7, 2016 central notification allowing jallikattu in the wake of the amendment passed by the State. The judgment on the constitutionality of the central notification was reserved in December 2016 after lengthy hearings.

Petitioner:

The Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI), which is the main petitioner in the 2016 challenge against the earlier January 7 central notification, contended in its 14-page application, filed on January 24, 2017 through advocate Anjali Sharma, that the Tamil Nadu amendment to the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960 was ultra vires of the 1960 Act and the Constitution.