TN Govt issues draft ordinance for Jallikattu issue

Chennai: The Tamil Nadu government draft ordinance to allow the holding of Jallikattu in the State has been handed over to the Centre and will
be implemented by Sunday after getting the President's assent on January 21. Tamil Nadu chief minister O Panneerselvam, said on his
return from Delhi after meeting legal experts, that the Jallikattu event would be held on Sunday, if all goes well as per schedule.

Panneerselvam appealed to the protestors on the Marina beach to call off their stir since the ordinance would be promulgated in a day
or two. However, the  representatives of the protestors said they would go on with the agitation till a final solution was found, Jallikattu be held, and PETA India should be banned.

49 AIADMK MPs met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh in Delhi on January 20 meeting and urged him to expedite efforts to get the ordinance cleared by the Centre and obtain assent of the President.

The Attorney General has said that the Tamil Nadu government has the power to enact a law to treat jallikattu as a traditional sport.
However, there must be no cruelty in the sport, he added.

Rohatgi had defended in the Supreme Court the Centre’s stand allowing the use of bulls in events like jallikattu. “The Constitution
demarcates the role of the Centre and the States... As far as sports are concerned, they are in the exclusive jurisdiction of the State,”
he said.

“Now, the State could consider making a law to treat it as a traditional sport, but the State must ensure ... that there is no cruelty

attached to the sport. It should not just be for the sport without bothering about the plight of the animals. I mean, you have bull fights

in Spain. Those are cases where bulls are killed,” he said.

“So the law can allow the sport subject to stringent conditions that there will not be anybody at a distance of 100 feet, nobody can
throw stones or do any acts of cruelty and if the same are found to be done, then there can be punishment, so that the concerns of
the Supreme Court rendered in the judgment, the concerns about cruelty, are also kept in view and a balanced position can be found
by the State. That I think is the correct legal position,” he said.

Regarding the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, the Attorney General said it is a central law which can be amended by Parliament
but if it is a sport in a local area, “let the State make the law relating to the sport minus any cruelty, with stringent punishment” for
those who commit cruelty.

He said there is no legal or constitutional bar for the State not to act as soon as it wants to and it can call a special session or issue an
ordinance.

“Merely because somebody may have [done] some cruelty, does not mean that the sport must itself be abolished,” he said.

The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to Centre's suggestion to pause the delivery of its judgment on the validity of the government's
January 7, 2016 notification allowing jallikattu for at least a week till the Centre and Tamil Nadu government resume talks to resolve the impasse amidst public volatility.