No jallikattu in Tamil Nadu this Pongal as SC balks at TN's plea

NEW DELHI/CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu will not see jallikkattu for the third consecutive year, as the Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to review its May 7, 2014 order banning the bull-taming event performed in villages every January during Pongal.
Dismissing a review petition filed by the state government, a division bench of Justices Dipak Misra and R F Nariman said the act of taming a bull to perform in an event amounted to cruelty and violated the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act of 1960.It said such practice could not be allowed.
In 2014, the court struck down the Tamil Nadu Regulation of Jallikkattu Act, 2009, which aimed to allow jallikkattu and upheld the central government notification of July 11, 2011 banning the use of bulls in performances.
The apex court said events like bull races and bullfights were inherently cruel, as bulls were not anatomically suited to such activities, and that forcing them to participate would subject them to unnecessary pain and suffering. The court stated that when culture and tradition were at variance with the law enacted by Parliament, the law would take precedence.
It held that bulls could not be used as performing animals, either for jallikkattu or bullock-cart races in Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra or elsewhere in the country . The court had declared the Tamil Nadu Regulation of Jallikkattu Act, 2009 as Constitutionally void. Assailing the ban, the state government filed the present review petition saying taming a bull was not torture to the animal, as it was reared with love and affection and treated as a member of the farmer's family.
The Centre, on its part, brought a notification allowing use of bulls in jallikkattu in January 2016, but the apex court stayed it. The matter has now been posted to December 1 for further hearing.
Hailing the verdict, PETA India director of veterinary affairs Manilal Valliyate said, “The honourable Supreme Court has confirmed once again that compassion triumphs over cruelty and that jallikkattu has no place in a civilised society.“