MADURAI : The Madras High Court Madurai Bench has dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking a direction to the Tamil Nadu government to amend the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act of 1960 to permit cock and ram fights in the state.
The petitioner G Chinnan stated that such sporting activities and the breeds involved in them would go extinct if permission was not granted by the officials. He also said that there was no uniformity among police officials in the state in granting permission for such traditional sports events as they were being permitted in some districts and not allowed in others. These sports events had nothing to do with gambling.
He sought a direction from the court to the state government to amend the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1960, as it was done early this year for exempting “Jallikattu” (bull taming) events from the purview of the legislation, to permit cock fight and ram fights.
A Division Bench of Justices K K Sasidharan and G R Swaminathan rejected the petition on the ground that they did not find any merit in the petitioner’s request. The Judges further said that a writ of mandamus could not be issued either to the state or the legislature to amend a law. Moreover, the cock fights were gruesome since the birds die in the course of the fights, they said. UNI
