After having lost two rounds in the Supreme Court, first on 12 January and again on on 13 January the Jallikattu fans in Tamil Nadu appear to be a determined lot, keeping all their hopes in the Apex Court once again.

On 21 January, the Supreme Court bench comprising of justices Gopal Gowda and Pinaki Chandra Ghose will hear three review petitions against the court’s 2014 judgment which imposed a ban on Jallikattu.

As that judgment was delivered by Justice KS Radhakrishnan, who has now retired, Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose, who was part of that bench which delivered the main judgment, will decide the review petitions in circulation along with Justice Gowda in their chambers.

The review bench will decide the petitions in exactly five minutes between 1:35 pm and 1:40 pm.

The review petitions have been filed by Arulmigu Muppillisamy Temple Represented by its Trustee, P Rajasekaran, Tamil Nadu Perampariya Veera Vilayattu Mattu Vandi Kaalaigal State Welfare Association, and JK Ritheesh Kumar @ Siva Kumar, State President (TVVJPKN Sangam), making the Animal Welfare Board, the petitioner in 2014, as the respondent.

The Supreme Court registry appears to have condoned the delay in filing these review petitions, as the main judgment was rendered on 7 May 2014. But it is a moot question whether the review bench will agree to hear the petition in open court, especially, with another bench of two Judges, having recently declined to vacate a stay on the Central Government’s 7 January notification lifting the ban on Jallikattu.