Nithyakalyani Narayanan. V
In the case of Animal Welfare Board of India & Ors v. Union of India, the Supreme Court upheld the laws which allowed the practice of jallikattu and other similar bullock cart races. The Court maintained that there are no precedents in the Constitution which recognise fundamental rights for animals.
The Constitutional Bench comprising Justices KM Joseph, Ajay Rastogi, Aniruddha Bose, Hrishikesh Roy and CT Ravikumar noted that even in its 2014 judgment of Animal Welfare Board of India v. A. Nagaraja & Ors., in which the court banned jallikattu, does not imply that animals have fundamental rights.
The Court stressed that the question of elevation of the statutory rights of animals to the section of fundamental rights is to be considered by the legislative body.
The Court explained that Article 14 of the Constitution cannot be appealed by an animal as a person. Hence, animal welfare legislation can be put to test at the instance of a human being or a juridical person backing the cause of animal welfare.
The court remarked that the practice of such bovine sports has an unavoidable element of involuntariness and infliction of pain and suffering. Yet, the bench noted that it does not extend to provide absolute animal protection from any manner of infliction of pain and suffering and also the ultimate aim of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1960 is that the animals must be protected from unnecessary pain and suffering.