Take steps to check simian menace in Panchkula: Punjab and Haryana High Court to Municipal Corporation

Tribune News Service

Saurabh Malik

Chandigarh, March 8

It is the beginning of an end to monkey business in Panchkula. Acting on a petition alleging simian menace in the city, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has directed the Panchkula Municipal Corporation to take all possible measures. The direction by Justice Anil Kshetarpal of the High Court came on a petition filed by the Citizen Committee of House Owners, Sector 25, Panchkula, against the Municipal Corporation and another respondent.

Taking up the petition filed through counsel Prashant Gupta, Justice Kshetarpal observed that the petitioner was seeking directions to the respondents to take effective measures to check the menace created by monkeys in the area.

Justice Kshetarpal observed that the counsel representing the petitioner drew the attention of the court to an order passed by a coordinate Bench of the High Court in the case of “Divyam Dhakla versus the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation and another” on September 8, 2020.

“After having heard the counsel for the petitioner, at some length, this court is of the considered view that the matter is required to be disposed of on the first date of hearing and the Municipal Corporation, Panchkula, is directed to take all possible measures in this direction,” Justice Kshetarpal added.

Disposing of the petition, the Bench added that the directions issued by the High Court in the writ petition would be kept in mind.

The High Court in the case of Divyam Dhakla had observed that the suggestion to start killing and/or culling monkeys like vermin, on the face of it, was outrageous, cruel and preposterous, to say the least, given that the monkey menace was self-created by residents and/or visitors to the adjoining religious establishment. Out of fondness or by way of religious offerings, they fed the monkeys. Garbage littering by residents was another contributor. The action on their part, itself became counter-protective, inasmuch as the monkeys ended up gathering in and around the religious establishment/residential colony, owing to easy availability of food, instead of being stable in their natural habitat in the adjoining Sukhna forest.

“This court, thus, is of the opinion that it is self-menace, created by residents/visitors, rather than the monkey menace, as termed in the petition,” Justice Monga added.

What the bench said

"After having heard the counsel for the petitioner, at some length, this court is of the considered view that the matter is required to be disposed of on the first date of hearing and the Municipal Corporation, Panchkula, is directed to take all possible measures in this direction," Justice Anil Kshetarpal said.

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