Madurai: The Madras High Court bench here on Friday ruled that it could not give any direction to police to permit cockfights as fight between birds and animals was prohibited under Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960.
Justice M Jaichandren and Justice R Mahadevan, dismissing a petition of a villager for a directive to police to permit a cockfight, generally conducted during festival seasons, said "cockfight was on the list of acts prohibited under Section 11(1)(n) of the PCA Act and, therefore, the court should not entertain petitions for permission to organise such events."
"The Section states it is a punishable offence to organise, keep or use any place either for animal fighting or for the purpose of baiting an animal. It also imposes a specific ban on offering a place for such purposes and collecting an entry fee for watching the fight",the Judges said.
The judges pointed out that while dealing with a similar case in May this year, another Division Bench headed by Justice N Kirubakaran had observed "the pleasure derived from the suffering of a bird is nothing but human perversion. No human can have this kind of sadistic pleasure".
