The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to be hurried into pronouncing its order on a government notification allowing jallikattu before Pongal (Saturday).
A Bench led by Justice Dipak Misra on Thursday termed the plea made during mentioning hour by a group of lawyers "simply unfair". Justice Misra said the process of drafting the judgment had just begun and pronouncement would take time.
The notification, issued by the Centre on January 7 last year, had sought to circumvent an apex court ban on jallikattu in 2014.
The notification had re-introduced bulls into the fold of 'performing animals' under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act of 1960, thus giving an indirect nod to jallikattu, which the court had described as an act of "inherent cruelty". The court had stayed the notification on pleas made by animal activists. Justice Misra, who is heading the bench hearing the case, also declined permission to file an application for an interim lifting of the stay on the government notification for Pongal.
The Tamil Nadu government had vehemently argued in favour of the notification, saying that it had introduced stringent controls over the conduct of jallikattu. "For 30 seconds or 15 feet, whichever is longer, the bull runs and is embraced by a tamer. What is the cruelty in that?” Tamil Nadu government had asked in the main hearings on the January 7 notification. Additional Solicitor General P.S. Narasimha had argued against “absolute prohibitionism” in the case of jallikattu. It has to acknowledge that the government should be allowed a degree of flexibility in particular cases. The Centre had contended that jallikattu was inextricably linked to the rural life of Tamil Nadu, where villagers cannot shed their centuries-old culture and “go watch Formula One racing”. On November 16, 2016, the Bench dismissed the State government's review petition against the 2014 judgment, saying the very act of "taming a bull" was counter to the concept of welfare of the animal under the 1960 Act.
