Straying from reason

Time of India

15 hours ago

Times of India's Edit Page team comprises senior journalists with wide-ranging interests who debate and opine on the news and issues of the day.
Why two-judge SC bench directions on street dogs urgently need a close second look by top court
Monday's Supreme Court direction on stray dogs raises several troubling questions. First, parts of the directives issued by the bench contradict existing rules. Animal Birth Control rules, under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, clearly state that strays cannot be relocated. Various SC orders, including one passed recently, have upheld these rules.
There's an existing advisory from the Animal Welfare Board on this. For another SC bench to direct authorities to 'forget the rules' is extraordinary. One of the top court's key roles is to ensure rules are followed.
Parenthetically, let's note that, as reported by TOI on Monday, an earlier order by the same SC bench criticising HC judges drew the disapproval of CJI Gavai and Justice Surya Kant.
Second, Monday's directives on strays are unimplementable. Animal welfare experts point out that for Delhi's strays, thousands of shelters will have to be built, in areas without human habitation. Land acquisition of this scale in a crowded city or in the wider NCR area will be impossible. Even assuming that's done, costs of building the shelters, training and employing thousands of people to run the shelters and feeding the strays will run into thousands of crores over time.
Which authority is fiscally prepared to do this? The answer is obvious. That Delhi government ministers have said they will implement these directives means little. If ministers don't realise now the impossibility of the task, they will soon do so.
Third, the issue that made the SC bench take suo motu notice of this case was rabies deaths. But forcible relocation of street dogs won't solve this. It will simply engender heart-breaking cruelty. The solution is upgrading Delhi's ABC centres that are mandated to perform sterilisation and immunisation. This is doable and for authorities, budget-wise affordable.
SC has in recent past reviewed its own decisions – in the Bhushan steel case and the HC judges case mentioned earlier. The directives on stray dogs is a fit case for an urgent and close second look.
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This piece appeared as an editorial opinion in the print edition of The Times of India.