Notification lifting jallikattu ban hasn't been quashed: Javadekar

With the Supreme Court staying the Centre’s nod for holding the bull taming sport jallikattu in poll-bound Tamil Nadu, Union minister Prakash Javadekar on Wednesday said the notification has not been quashed and his ministry would explain its case before the apex court.

"The Congress and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam governments banned jallikattu. I opened the gateway and my notification has not been quashed by the Supreme Court. The matter will be heard and we will definitely put up the rationale behind the notification," he told reporters.

Javadekar was replying to a question on whether the apex court’s stay on holding the sport would impact the outcome of the upcoming Tamil Nadu assembly elections.

The Supreme Court had recently stayed the Centre’s notification lifting the ban on jallikattu as an interim measure.

The four-year-old ban on holding of the controversial bull taming sport in Tamil Nadu was lifted with certain restrictions after the environment ministry came out with a notification on January 7, angering animal rights activists who termed it as cruel.

Following the notification, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals India had termed the lifting of protection against cruelty to bulls a 'black mark' after which petitions were filed in the Supreme Court by it and other animal rights bodies including Animal Welfare Board of India.

Javadekar, who has been appointed as the Bharatiya Janata Party's election in-charge of Tamil Nadu, also said the action plan of the party will only be made after taking stock of the situation.

"As the in-charge of TN elections, in the next couple of days, I will be discussing in detail the plans with our party president Amit Shah, my colleague Piyush Goyal, state president and other office bearers and also Murlidhar Rao who is in-charge from the organisational point of view. After we take stock, we will decide our action plan. I will be coming more frequently to TN now," Javadekar said.

Javadekar and Goyal have been appointed BJP's election in-charge and co-incharge, respectively, for poll-bound Tamil Nadu.