Court case(2014) 7 SCC 547

Jallikattu (bull-taming) in Tamil Nadu and bullock-cart races in Maharashtra involved bulls being held, prodded, bitten, given liquor and forced to run among crowds. The Animal Welfare Board and animal-welfare organisations challenged the practices under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960 and a 2011 central notification which barred bulls from being exhibited or trained as performing animals. Tamil Nadu relied on its Regulation of Jallikattu Act, 2009 and on the tradition and culture behind the sport.

Radhakrishnan J held that the events inflicted unnecessary pain and suffering on the bulls and violated ss. 3 and 11 of the 1960 Act, which the court read with Article 51A(g) (compassion for living creatures) and the 'five freedoms' of animal welfare (freedom from hunger and thirst, from discomfort, from pain and injury, to express normal behaviour, and from fear and distress). The court said that 'life' in Article 21 has been given an expanded meaning and that so far as animals are concerned it means more than mere survival: a life with intrinsic worth, honour and dignity. The Tamil Nadu Act was held repugnant to the central Act and void under Article 254(1). Jallikattu was banned. The court did not declare animals to be legal persons; it spoke of the statutory rights of animals and the corresponding duties of humans.