ORDER

This Writ Petition is filed for issuance of a Writ of Mandamus to direct the respondents to allow the petitioner's Elephant viz., 'Lakshmi' bearing Microchip Number 00065E957E to attend the function to he held on 18.09.2022 at Sree Idaikkadar Sidhar Jayanthi Thiruvizha, Idaikkattur, Sivagangai District and also a film shooting to be held from 20.09.2022 to 27.09.2022 by 'Axess Film Factory', at the location of Parali Kramam, Kottaimedu Panchayat, Vadipatti Taluk in terms of the petitioner's letter dated 05.09.2022.

2. The petitioner states that an elephant by name Lakshmi (Microchip Number 00065E957E) is owned by him for the past 22 years. Though the petitioner has been normally permitted to use his elephant for the purpose of attending marriage ceremonies, temple festivals, film shootings, etc., it is stated that the authorities of the respondents slowly prohibiting the use of elephant for so many functions one by one.

3. The petitioner used to obtain transit permit to shift the elephant outside the District and States for several times for the past 15 to 20 years in terms of permit in Form-B under Sub-Rule (2) of Rule 4 of the Wild Life (Protection) Rules, issued by the first respondent, for the purpose of attending wedding, temple festivals and cinema shootings.

Even the petitioner's elephant has earlier appeared in a few films. 4. It is the case of the petitioner that on 09.05.2022, one "Axess Film Factory" engaged the petitioner's elephant Lakshmi for shooting of their movie "Kalvan" from 18.05.2022 to 20.05.2022. The petitioner applied for transit permit on 09.05.022 and 10.05.2022. Though the first respondent by order dated 19.05.2022 rejected the transit permit in respect of the film shooting and granted permission to attend temple function, the petitioner states that he was unable to challenge the said order due to the summer vacation.

5. It is the case of the petitioner that "Axess Film Factory" has once again given a letter dated 01.09.2022 to the petitioner for participation of the petitioner's elephant "Lakshmi" in the said film "Kalvan" between 19.09.2022 and 27.09.2022. The petitioner also applied for transit permit on 05.09.2022 to the first respondent and the application was also duly acknowledged by him. Though the application was received by the first respondent on 06.09.2022, the same has not been disposed of and hence, the petitioner has filed the above Writ Petition.

6. The learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that earlier he filed WP.No.7141 of 2022 challenging the order dated 17.03.2022, in which, the petitioner's elephant was not allowed to participate in film shooting. This Court by an order dated 28.03.2022 granted an interim stay of operation of the order dated 17.03.2022 in respect of portion of condition No.23 to the effect that the elephant should not be used for film shooting.

7. The present Writ Petition was filed on 12.09.2022. When this Writ Petition was taken up for admission on 15.09.2022 before different Bench, the Registry was directed to post this matter before this Court. On 16.09.2022, the Writ Petition was listed before this Court and it was adjourned to 20.09.2022 (today).

8. Today, the learned counsel appearing for the petitioner produced an order dated 17.09.2022, passed by the first respondent, before this Court by which the petitioner's application seeking permission for transporting the elephant to participate in the film shooting, has been rejected. The said order is extracted hereunder:

"With reference to the above cited, it is informed that as per the guidelines issued by the Project Elephant Division, Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change in reference 2nd cited, the elephant should not be subjected to any other physical display or commercial usage, where crowd tend to touch and tease the animal. The applicant has applied for participating in film shooting from 20.09.2022 to 27.09.2022, which is considered as a physical display for commercial purpose.

Henc