SC: SOMETHING TROUBLING IN PREZ NOD TO JALLIKATTU AND ANIMAL RACES

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it found “something troubling” in the Presidential assent granted to allow Jallikattu, a popular traditional bull-taming sport in Tamil Nadu, and animal races in Karnataka and Maharashtra.

A five-judge Constitution bench headed by justice KM Joseph was examining a bunch of petitions filed by animal welfare organisations and individuals against these state laws when it said: “There is something that we found there that troubles us. Our problem is whether putting that question to you will again involve disclosure of many things.”

The bench made the remarks after examining files relating to the President’s nod shared by solicitor general Tushar Mehta.

Mehta told the court not to venture into such an exercise as he handed the files in good faith out of respect to the wish expressed by the court. “There is no challenge to the Presidential assent. Presidential assent has its own constitutional sanctity. This should not become a precedent that from now on, any Presidential assent is called for and is subjected to scrutiny,” he said.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who appeared for the Tamil Nadu government, said: “The assent is based on a constitutional procedure. The threshold to test it is high. Otherwise, every Presidential assent will be challenged as being bad in courts.”

“The foundation (to examine assent) should be there,” the bench agreed, adding, “The Presidential assent being called in question is really not an assault on the high office... In a country governed by rule of law and written Constitution, we only wanted to know what response you will have to say.”