High Court orders fresh stray dog census

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 16

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has ordered a fresh census to determine the population of stray dogs in each sector. The task has been assigned to the Animal Husbandry and Fisheries Department of the Chandigarh Administration along with the Municipal Corporation.

In his detailed order on a contempt petition filed by Rav Pratap Singh through counsel Saurabh Arora, Justice Augustine George Masih has called for sector-wise details of the stray dog population, along with the programme for their sterilisation in accordance with the Animal Birth Control (Dogs) Rules, 2001.

Directing the case to be fixed for December, Justice Masih clarified: “In the meanwhile, the process of sterilisation of stray dogs as per the 2001 Rules be continued and a report in this regard be submitted on the next date of hearing”.

Referring to the submissions made by the counsel for the parties and an affidavit filed by the Medical Officer of Health, Justice Masih asserted that the tentative stray dogs’ population was 7,847 as per a census carried out in 2012 by the Animal Husbandry and Fisheries Department. Five years had elapsed since then, Justice Masih added.

The apparent failure of the powers that be to put a leash on the dog menace in the city had, at the time of filing the petition, landed then UT Home Secretary Anurag Aggarwal and then Municipal Commissioner B Purushartha in a contempt loop.

Acting on a petition seeking the initiation of contempt of court proceedings for “wilful disobedience” of court orders, the High Court had put the two officers and another respondent on notice.

Going into the background of the controversy, Arora said the High Court, vide its judgment dated April 28, 2015, had asked the Chandigarh Administration and the Municipal Corporation to implement the scheme on stray dog management in the city “in letter and spirit”. Directions were also issued for initiating necessary steps suggested by a committee in its report to control the menace of stray dog bites. Arora claimed that a comprehensive scheme was notified by the Chandigarh Administration in 2013, but not implemented in letter and spirit.