New three-judge bench of Supreme Court to hear Delhi-NCR stray dogs matter today
A bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and N V Anjaria will now hear the suo motu proceedings initiated over the issue of stray dogs Thursday.
The bench said that 'there should not be any compromise in undertaking any exercise' and warned that 'if any individual or organisation comes in the way of picking up stray dogs or rounding them up, we will proceed to take action against any such resistance'.
The court said no sentiments should undermine the drive. 'Infants and young children, at any cost, should not fall prey to rabies. The action should inspire confidence that they can move freely without fear of being bitten by stray dogs. No sentiments should be involved,' it said.
This led to protests from animal rights groups, which said the order was in violation of Animal Birth Control (Dogs) Rules, 2001, that states that after vaccination, the dogs should be released into the same locality from where they were picked up.
On Wednesday, a lawyer brought to the notice of Chief Justice of India B R Gavai that the August 11 order had not been uploaded on the court's official website. CJI Gavai said he is looking into the matter. The order was uploaded in the evening.
Earlier in the day, a plea related to vaccination and sterilisation of community dogs in the national capital too came up for mention before the CJI-led bench.
The plea by the Conference for Human Rights (India) in 2024, a non-governmental organisation, challenged the Delhi High Court's August 2023 order on its PIL seeking directions for sterilisation and vaccination of community dogs as per the Animal Birth Control (Dogs) Rules.
The High Court had disposed of the PIL without issuing any specific direction following which the NGO approached the Supreme Court. On July 8 last year, a two-judge bench issued notice to the Centre and the Delhi government regarding the plea.
On Wednesday, the counsel for the NGO told the CJI-led bench that the respondents were yet to file counter-affidavits despite the fact that on May 13 this year, the Supreme Court had given them a last chance to do so. CJI Gavai then pointed out that another bench had already passed an order concerning strays, apparently referring to the August 11 order.
The counsel pointed out that last May, yet another Supreme Court bench, led by Justice J K Maheshwari, had sent back petitions on the stray dog issue to High Courts saying 'there cannot be any indiscriminate killings of canines and the authorities have to take action in terms of the mandate and spirit of the prevalent legislation in place'.
The counsel said the Justice Maheshwari-led bench had added that 'there is no gainsaying in the fact that exhibiting compassion to all living beings, is the enshrined Constitutional value and mandate, and casts obligation on the authorities to maintain'.
Following this, the CJI assured: 'I will look into it.'
It is learnt that the CJI decided to refer the matter to the three-judge bench in view of the fact that there are now two orders on the same issue – one by the Justice Maheshwari bench and the other by the Justice Pardiwala bench.
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