State Laws Permitting Jallikattu, Kambala and Bullock-Cart Races Valid: Constitution Bench Upholds 2017 Amendments

In A. Nagaraja (2014), a two-Judge Bench held that Jallikattu and Bullock Cart Races breached Sections 3 and 11(1)(a) and (m) of the 1960 Act (para 2). Writ petitions then challenged a 2016 notification, and Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Karnataka enacted 2017 amendment Acts, which received Presidential assent, legitimising these bovine sports (paras 2, 5). The Bombay High Court restrained Bullock Cart Races in Maharashtra, and a farmer appealed (paras 6-7). On 2nd February 2018 a Division Bench referred five questions to a Constitution Bench; the Karnataka and Maharashtra challenges were later heard with them (paras 8, 10). State Rules and a Karnataka Notification regulate the events (para 13).

The amendment Acts must be read with their Rules and the Karnataka Notification as an integral part of the statute (paras 28-29). So read, the sports have changed in character, pain-inflicting practices are substantially diluted, and a law is not struck down on an apprehension of its abuse, so the Acts are not colourable legislation (para 30). That bulls cannot run like horses does not make the classification irrational, and weighing degrees of pain against human needs is for the legislature (para 31). In pith and substance the Acts concern prevention of cruelty to animals under Entry 17 of List III, not Entry 15 of List II, and no flaw was found in the Presidential assent under Article 254(2) (paras 32, 34, 38). Because the Rules alter how the sports are conducted, Sections 3 and 11(1)(a) and (m) are no longer attracted, so the Acts do not merely override A. Nagaraja (para 35). The Court would not bring bulls within Article 21 or let an animal invoke Article 14 as a person, leaving that to the legislature (para 24). Whether Jallikattu is part of Tamil culture is for the legislature, whose view the Court would not disrupt (para 40).