NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it will first decide on the constitutional and legal framework for letting the resumption of events like bull taming and bullock cart races in various parts of the country, including Tamil Nadu, Punjab and Haryana.
A bench comprising Justices Dipak Misra and R F Nariman asked the Centre, State governments and organisers of such sports to demonstrate that these were permissible under the constitution.
The batch of petitions would be referred to a larger Bench if the Centre and the states demonstrate that the 2014 ban was wrong and required a review, the bench said and posted the matter for final hearing on August 30.
Centre in an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court has defended its January 7, 2015 notification which allowed jallikattu and bullock cart races with adequate safeguards to prevent cruelty to the bovine animal. The Supreme Court has already stayed the notification.
Centre has cited Mahabharata to demonstrate that bull taming and other shows were ancient forms of sport. “Lord Krishna had to tame seven bulls to marry Princess Naganajiti,” it said adding organising of bull race or bullock cart race or jallikattu is part of efforts to maintain bio-diversity.
In the affidavit, state mentions religious mythology, the National Freedom Struggle, the heroic powers of youths and how bulls, like deer, are accustomed to running and stated that jallikattu traces its origins to Indus Valley Civilisation and there are terracotta tablets which prove it.
“Bull-baiting figures in the Mahabharata also describe Krishna controlling a ferocious bull in the forecourt of Kamsa’s palace,” Tamil Nadu government said. The affidavit also finds links from both ancient Tamil literature and Sangam era and beyond. Tamil Nadu contended why Jallikattu is illegal when bull-fighting, where the animal is killed, has been given constitutional protection as part of cultural heritage.
“The bloody sport of bull fighting which is far more cruel and involves the killing of the bull is legal in at least eight countries including liberal and democratic countries like France,” the affidavit reads.
“Youth who have traditionally taken part in Jallikattu have also been at the forefront of the armed struggle against the British,” it said while stating how it was a martial spirit. Countering arguments that bull is a domesticated bovine animal, the State compared it to other cloven-footed animal who can run like deer. It said a bull spends less than 30 seconds in the arena.
The petitioners have also contended that bull performances were intended to preserve indigenous pedigree bulls and as such people opposed to these events were playing into the hands of multinational companies that wanted to do business by destroying all that was native to India.
When Tamil Nadu senior counsel Shekhar Naphade cited the age old practice of bull taming in the state, the bench remarked, “If custom and tradition were to be the basis, even ‘sati’ would have to be made legal.”
Earlier, the court had refused to vacate the stay for letting Tamil Nadu go ahead with the bull sport in January on the occasion of its harvest festival, ‘Pongal’.
Youth threatens to kill self
A 25-year-old, identified as Dinesh, climbed up a hillock, stood atop a rock and threatened to end self if the ban on Jallikattu was not lifted immediately, at Tiruchengode near here on Tuesday. Some visitors to the hillock noticed a man standing atop the rock, close to the Uchipillayar Temple, and alerted the local authorities, sources said. Officials including the RDO, Thiruchengode, G Mahatma, and Thiruchengode Town Inspector K Kulasekaran rushed to the spot along with personnel from the Fire and Rescue Services. The officials tried to persuade him to climb down to safety. The efforts to make him climb down to safety continued till late in the evening without success.