According to sources Supreme Court will hear on February 12 a plea by PETA seeking to prohibit the buffalo race Kambala that is held in Karnataka during festivities that coincide with the Pongal celebrations. Meanwhile a bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice AM Khanwilkar and Justice DY Chandrachud had agreed to hear the plea by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) as the NGO's lawyer, Arunima Kedia, mentioned the matter for an early hearing.
Meanwhile Kedia told the court that the Karnataka government had issued an ordinance conferring sanctity to Kambala, which has since lapsed. According to sources the court was told that a Bill backing Kambala was passed by the Karnataka Assembly and was pending assent by the President.
Earlier a bench of Chief Justice Misra and Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman
had on December 12, 2017, asked the Karnataka government to respond to the PETA
plea in three weeks and gave another two weeks to the NGO to file a rejoinder.
Usually in this slush track buffalo race a pair of buffaloes tied to a plough run in parallel slush tracks, with a farmer controlling them while balancing on
the plough.
