{"id":31344,"date":"2018-10-27T13:12:26","date_gmt":"2018-10-27T07:42:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=31344"},"modified":"2018-10-27T13:12:26","modified_gmt":"2018-10-27T07:42:26","slug":"the-jallikattu-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/the-jallikattu-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"The jallikattu challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/opinion\/lead\/the-jallikattu-challenge\/article22734450.ece\"><b>The jallikattu challenge<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n<p><b>Context:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What must the Supreme Court do when a community\u2019s right to cultural freedom comes into conflict with values of animal welfare?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Tamil Nadu\u2019s Amendment to the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960 (PCA Act)<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The amendment discharges the practice of Jallikattu, which it defines with a sloppy lack of precision as \u201can event involving bulls conducted with a view to follow tradition and culture\u201d, from the various rigours of the PCA Act.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The petitioners, including the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, argue that the amending law violates a slew of fundamental rights.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Animal Rights in India<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Part III of the Constitution, which lists the various fundamental rights, provides to persons different manners of guarantees, including in Article 14 a right to equality, and in Article 21 a right to life. However, do not explicitly recognise animals as persons.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Indeed, until now, the liberties contained in Part III have largely been understood as promises made to human beings, and, in appropriate cases, to associations of human beings, such as corporations, partnerships and other similar entities.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As a result, when a movement for animal welfare in India was initially launched, it stemmed not through an argument predicated on rights, but through an effort founded on qualities of decency, on a belief that to inflict unnecessary pain on animals was morally unconscionable.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Since the Constitution imposed no binding obligation on the state to protect animal welfare, it was left to campaigners to beseech Parliament into enacting a proper law for the purpose.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 1960 the Union government brought into force the PCA Act, which criminalised several different types of actions resulting in cruelty to animals. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These include exceptions like the performance of experiments on animals aimed purportedly at advancing discovery of drugs and a wide and general concession for \u201ckilling any animal in a manner required by the religion of any community\u201d<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Legitimising Jallikattu:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The bull-taming spectacle Jallikattu, which is traditionally held during the Pongal period in southern States, violated many of the provisions of the PCA Act.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Given that the subject of preventing animal cruelty falls in the concurrent list of the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution, State governments possess an equal authority to determine what actions constitute cruelty to animals within their respective territories.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was on the basis of this power that the Tamil Nadu government legitimised Jallikattu, by amending the PCA Act, and by exempting the practice entirely from the statute\u2019s demands.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Defending the Statute:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><strong>The State can put forward two arguments:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the amendment serves to preserve native varieties of bulls <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The exemption in favour of Jallikattu furthers the Tamil people\u2019s right to conserve their culture.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Way Forward:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><strong>Court can do one of two things: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Court can hold that animals also possess a right to live with dignity, and, therefore, enjoy a right to life under Article 21.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Or, it could hold that this right under Article 21 includes within its ambit a larger freedom to live in a society free of animal cruelty.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The jallikattu challenge Context: What must the Supreme Court do when a community\u2019s right to cultural freedom comes into conflict with values of animal welfare? Tamil Nadu\u2019s Amendment to the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960 (PCA Act) The amendment discharges the practice of Jallikattu, which it defines with a sloppy lack of precision&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/the-jallikattu-challenge\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The jallikattu challenge<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-test-1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704796557},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31344\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}