New Delhi, August 22: The Supreme Court on Friday amended the order of August 11, which directed the roundness of all stray dogs in Delhi-NCR and banned their release from dog shelters. The court now allows stray dogs to return to the same area after sterilization and vaccination.
A bench of three-judges of Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta, and NV Anjaria ruled that wandering dogs should be released after sterilization and vaccination, except for those who infected with rabies or performing aggressive behavior.
The court stated that infected stray dogs would be sterilized and repaired, but under any circumstances they would be left back to the streets, and as far as possible, they would be kept in different shelters or pounds after sterilization and vaccination.
Revealing the order of August 11, the dogs who are picked up are strangled, vaccinated, and left back into the same area, from where they were picked up, “amended the August 11 order, saying that stray dogs will not be released.
The bench also banned public food of stray dogs and directed the MCD to create a dedicated feeding place in each municipal ward.
The bench said, “In any case, stray dogs will not be allowed to feed on the streets. Dedicated feeding places of stray dogs should be built. Examples are given due to such feeding examples,” the bench said.
The apex court ordered that the feeding area would be identified keeping in mind the population of stray dogs in the ward, and notice boards should be kept mentioning that stray dogs would be fed only in such areas.
This further ordered that persons feeding dogs in violation of its direction would be liable to proceed under the relevant structure.
The apex court further stated that the municipal officer would create a dedicated helpline numbers for reporting their directions on feeding stray dogs, and appropriate action should be taken against the persons concerned in the case of NGO or violation of its order.
“Any person or organization will not cause obstruction to the effective implementation of the instructions given above. If any public servant is interrupted, the violations would be responsible for facing prosecution to obstruct the discharge of public duty,” the bench ordered.
It has also been stated that the desired animal lover will be free to transfer an application for the municipal authorities concerned to adopt street dogs, on which the selected dogs identified will be tagged and given/it/it will be the responsibility of the person to ensure that adopted dogs do not return to the streets.
This further ordered that every individual dog lover and each NGO, who has approached the court, will have to deposit an amount of Rs 25,000 and Rs 2 lakh respectively, with the apex court, they will not be allowed to appear in any case when they fail.
The bench said that the deposit amount will be used for the construction of infrastructure and facilities for stray dogs under the aegis of the respective municipal bodies.
On Friday, the apex court also expanded the scope of action on the threat of stray dogs and contained all the states and center areas as parties in the case. The order of August 11 was limited to the Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) region only.
It issued a notice to the Secretaries of the Animal Husbandry Department in all the states and center areas, which gave their response to the creation of a national policy to deal with the problem.
The bench directed its registry to get information from all the High Courts, where petitions are pending on the issue of stray dogs and ordered that all such cases would be transferred to the apex court.
A bench order of three-judges came on arguments demanding an order of August 11 of the two-judges to remove all stray dogs from the areas of Delhi-NCR region and put them into shelter houses.
On August 11, the apex court ordered that all areas of Delhi, Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurugram and Faridabad should be freed from stray dogs and no compromise, and it was also clarified that no occupied animals would be released back to the streets.
In the detailed order it has been clarified that its instructions were not operated by “transient impulse”, but, it came after a complete and careful idea, that the concerned officials have failed to effectively address a serious issue for more than two decades consecutively which directly affects public safety.
A bench of Justice JB Pardwala R. Madhadev had said that it has decided to take the matter into its own hands, which is to address an issue that attacks public safety in the last two decades.
The bench had said that the instructions given by it, as a court that acts for the welfare of people, are in the interest of both humans and “it is not personal”.
It was noted that according to the data available on the website of the Press Information Bureau, 37,15,713 dog cuttings were reported in the country, and in Delhi alone, there were 25,201 dog bite cases. (AI)