Preventing animal cruelty is a duty of the state
- Soon, a Constitution Bench of the SC will deliver its verdict on the validity of Tamil Nadu’s law permitting the practice of jallikattu in the State.
- In 2014, in Animal Welfare Board of India v. A. Nagaraja, a two-judge Bench of the Supreme Court declared jallikattu illegitimate.
Constitutional & legal provisions for animal rights and safety
- No Fundamental right to animal safety: None of the guarantees contained in Part III of the Constitution are explicitly conferred on animals.
- Scope of Article 14 (right to equality) and Article 21 (right to life): bestowed on persons & not animals.
- Scope of DPSPs & Fundamental Duties: some DPSPs & Fundamental Duties reflect a responsibility placed on the state & human beings to protect the natural environment.; but these are unenforceable obligations.
- Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act (PCA Act), 1960: This Act provides for punishment for causing unnecessary cruelty and suffering to animals.
Shortcomings of PCA Act, 1960
- Undue exemptions: Criminalizes several types of actions that cause cruelty to animals but exempts the use of animals for experiments.
- Issue from 2017 amendment: both the state & Union government have the power to legislate on issues concerning cruelty to animals causing a rift between the two.
Care towards animals
- Arguments in favour of personhood: animals, share much in common with human beings.
- View towards animals: We must instead see “each form of animal life in all its beauty and strangeness.”
- Seeing animals in the context of our own right to live: in a world that treats animals with equal concern.
Conclusion
- It is possible to argue that a human right to a healthy environment would include a human right to animal welfare.
- In this conception, legislating to prevent animal cruelty is no longer an option; it transforms into a binding duty cast on the state.
Prelims Takeaway
- PCA, 1960