After Centre allowed Jallikattu, Supreme Court stops it

Questioning the “necessity of such festivals”, the Supreme Court Tuesday restrained the Tamil Nadu government from conducting its traditional bull-taming sport Jallikattu, and stayed the Centre’s notification lifting the ban on it. “What is the necessity of such festivals… like Jallikattu? There was no festival for four years… as an interim measure, we direct that there shall be stay of notification dated January 7, 2016 issued by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, until further orders,” a bench of Justices Dipak Misra and N V Ramana said. Agreeing with animal rights groups on the necessity to issue an urgent order, the court imposed the interim stay until March 15 which, apart from Jallikattu in Tamil Nadu, will also prohibit bullock cart races in states like Maharashtra, Karnataka, Punjab, Haryana, Kerala and Gujarat during this period.