Centre to wait for Supreme Court's final verdict before taking its call on Jallikattu

NEW DELHI: The Centre appears to be sympathetic to the demand of Tamil Nadu on Jallikattu, but it will wait for the Supreme Court's final order on the bull-taming sport before taking its next call on the controversial issue.

Since the matter is still pending as the apex court had last week reserved its verdict on petitions challenging Centre's 2016 notification allowing the sport, the environment minister Anil Madhav Dave did not want to comment on the issue at this juncture on Wednesday.

Sources in his ministry, however, said that the Centre would have, in any case, an option to take Parliament route if the apex court insists on banning Jallikattu in its final verdict.

Dave had last week blamed the previous UPA government for the current mess. He had on January 11 tweeted, "The mother of problem is the Congress-led UPA government which included bulls in performing list in 2011".

He had also tweeted that the matter was pending in the Supreme Court and the government was waiting for the decision.

The mother of problem is the Congress-led UPA government which included bulls in performing list in 2011.

— Anil Madhav Dave (@anilmdave) January 11, 2017

Meanwhile, officials in his ministry are waiting for the outcome of the Tamil Nadu chief minister O Panneerselvam's meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The state chief minister will meet Modi on Thursday, seeking an ordinance allowing Jallikattu.

The apex court had on last Thursday rejected a plea seeking to allow the controversial sport played during Pongal festival in Tamil Nadu and reserved its verdict on a batch of petitions challenging Centre's notification allowing the sport.

The Centre had in January last year issued a notification lifting ban on Jallikattu in Tamil Nadu with certain restrictions. It was, however, challenged in the Supreme Court by Animal Welfare Board of India, People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India, a Bangalore-based NGO and others.

The court had in 2014 banned Jallikattu on grounds of animal cruelty. It had on January 21 last year refused to re-examine its 2014 judgement. Later on July 26 last year, it had said that just because the bull-taming sport of Jallikattu was a centuries-old tradition, it could not be justified.