MADURAI

The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court, which was on Monday hearing a public interest litigation petition seeking a direction to constitute a special committee to conduct jallikattu at Palanganatham in Madurai, asked the State if jallikattu could be restricted to the Tamil month of ‘Thai’.

A Division Bench of Justices N. Kirubakaran and S.S. Sundar observed that the conduct of jallikattu could be restricted to ‘Thai’ (from January 14/15 and February 14/15). Otherwise, heavy police bandobast had to be provided for the conduct of the event all the time, the court said and sought a response from the State.

The PIL was filed by advocate P. Balamurugan of Madurai, seeking a direction to constitute a special committee to conduct jallikattu at Palanganatham. He said last year, the funds meant for the event was mismanaged by the organising committee.

This year the members were at loggerheads over the conduct of the event and the organisers had split into two groups. For the peaceful conduct of the event, he sought setting up of an organising committee and advisory committee, as done for Avaniapuram jallikattu.