No blanket ban imposed on rooster fights in Tamil Nadu, DGP’s office tells Madras High Court

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The petitioner had urged the court to permit rooster fights during village temple festivals in Erode and Namakkal districts.

The office of Tamil Nadu’s Director General of Police/Head of Police Force (DGP/HoPF) on Monday (September 21, 2026) clarified to the Madras High Court that a circular issued by it on September 12, 2025 does not impose a blanket ban on rooster fights and it only intends to prevent gambling and cruelty to the birds during such fights.

In a report filed before Justice V. Lakshminarayanan, the DGP/HoPF’s office said, the intent of the year-old circular was to curb the practices of tying knives or blades around the necks of the fighter cocks, stitching their eyes and so on. The intent was certainly not to enforce an executive prohibition on any lawful activity.

The report was filed after the judge had, during the last hearing of the case, asked State Public Prosecutor (SPP) R. John Sathyan to explain under what authority did the DGP/HoPF instruct the police officers across the State to ensure that “no incident of cockfight is allowed in their jurisdiction.”

Accordingly, L. Balaji Saravanan, Assistant Inspector General of Police, High Court cases monitoring cell at the office of the DGP/HoPF, clarified that the words “officers shall ensure that no incident of cockfight is allowed in their jursidiction” in the 2025 circular were used in the context of preventing cruelty.

The AIG said, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court had in an order passed on May 21, 2024 observed that there were complaints of rooster fights being conducted in various places for betting and gambling though such act was prohibited under Section 12 of the Tamil Nadu Gambling Act, 1930.

Thereafter, the principal seat of the High Court in Chennai too had on August 13, 2025 directed the police to ensure that neither any gambling nor any kind of cruelty gets perpetrated during rooster fights and to initiate appropriate action against those who violate the law.

The DGP/HoPF’s office had issued the 2025 circular only to implement the court orders and “not to exercise any independent/statutory/legislative power to impose a prohibition on every form of cockfighting or every event involving cocks,” the clarification report read.

Justice Lakshminarayanan recorded the submissions made on behalf of the DP/HoPF and disposed of a writ petition filed by R. Arun Kumar who had urged the court to quash the 2025 circular and consequently permit rooster fights during village temple festivals in Erode and Namakkal districts.

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