New Delhi:
Tamil Nadu government's plea to lift the ban on the popular bull taming sport Jallikattu has been turned down by the Supreme Court. The ban was placed by the top court in 2014.
In its verdict, the court said, "Tamil Nadu's argument that Jallikattu is meant only for the entertainment of farmers and not meant to be cruel to animals can't be accepted".
The court also rejected the state's argument that the sport be allowed in the name of antiquity - that it has been a socio-economic cultural festival held for centuries.
On December 1, the court will hear the validity of Centre's notification allowing Jallikattu, even though it has put a freeze on the notification.
T Sivakumar, a member of Tamil Nadu's Jallikattu Association said, "People here in North don't understand the culture of our state". Farmers of the state, he said, love cattle and live with them. "There is no cruelty to bulls at all. Still we hope there will be some justice," he added.
The court had earlier said the sport was against constitutional principles and that in the modern world of computers, "it is better to play Jallikattu on computer".
The top court also told Centre, "On the one hand you want us to show compassion to cows and on the other, you want to inflict cruelty on bulls".
The state and central government's move to revive the sport - hugely popular in rural areas during four-day Pongal festival - is rooted in votebank politics, animal rights organisations have alleged.
Activists say there is clear video evidence of how the animals are assaulted, intoxicated and subjected to other forms of cruelty. Lime juice is squeezed into their eyes and chilli powder is rubbed on their genitals to make them ferocious.