From pet spat to pizza pact: HC serves a neighbourly truce

What began as a petty quarrel between neighbours over pet handling has ended in an order that smells more of oregano than acrimony. The Delhi High Court has quashed cross-cases of assault and intimidation on the unusual condition that both parties served pizzas and buttermilk to children at a government childcare home.

Justice Arun Monga turned the bitter neighbourhood brawl into an opportunity for community bonding, ruling that every child and staff member at Sanskar Ashram, near GTB Hospital, must receive a mixed-vegetable pizza and chaach. The twist: the pizzas are to be baked by one of the complainants, who runs a pizza business.

“Each inmate and member of the staff at the ashram shall be served one pizza along with chaach. The Pizzas shall be baked by the complainant… and the same shall be treated as community service to be jointly carried out by all the complainants and the accused,” the order read.

The dispute had begun in May this year, when a spat over pets spiralled, with both sides lodging FIRs against each other at the Mansarovar Park Police Station. But once the matter reached the high court, the quarreling neighbours informed that they had patched things up.

Rather than let the criminal proceedings drag on, the court called it a private fight that served no wider purpose. Continuing with prosecution, Justice Monga said, would “rekindle hostility” while quashing the cases could “promote cordiality and bonhomie between the neighbours.”

To ensure the order wasn’t treated lightly, the investigating officer was told to personally oversee compliance. A soft copy of the menu, the judge recorded, had even been shared with him on WhatsApp.