SC to announce verdict on petitions seeking stay on stray dogs’ rounding up on Friday

The Supreme Court will pronounce orders on Friday on petitions seeking a stay on its August 11 directions to round up stray dogs in Delhi-NCR and send them to dog shelters with immediate effect.

A three-judge Bench led by Justice Vikram Nath – which had on August 14 reserved its orders on the issue – will pronounce the same at 10.30 am.

“The whole problem is because of the inaction of local authorities... Rules are framed, but no implementation carried out, creating a problem today. On one hand, humans are suffering, on other hand animal lovers want dogs protected,” the Bench – which also included Justice Sandeep Mehta and Justice NV Anjaria – had said, while reserving the order.

On August 11, a Bench of Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice R Mahadevan had issued directions in a suo motu case titled ‘CITY HOUNDED BY STRAYS, KIDS PAY PRICE” to permanently relocate all canines from streets to shelters “at the earliest”.

“We are conscious and sensitive of co-existence. The idea behind co-existence is not the existence of one’s life at the cost of the other,” it said in the order released on Wednesday.

Flagging the attacks faced by the most vulnerable sections of society, it had said, “We are at pains to take cognizance of the experiences of visually impaired persons, young children, elderly persons, people from humble background who are not able to afford even a day’s meal, let alone the medical expenses.”

“This is the time to act. All these animal activists and all these so-called animal lovers…will they bring back all those children who have fallen prey to rabies? Will they put life back in those children? Let’s take a practical view of the matter. When the situation demands, you have to act,” it had on August 11 said, refusing to entertain intervention applications of animal rights activists.

The matter was assigned to the three-judge Bench on August 13 after some lawyers mentioned before CJI BR Gavai that the August 11 directions were in conflict with previous orders passed by other Benches and statutory provisions.

On Thursday, the top court refused urgent listing of a petition challenging a Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) notification on rounding up stray dogs.

The plea was mentioned by a lawyer for urgent listing before a Bench of Justice JK Maheshwari and Justice Vijay Bishnoi which turned down the request, saying a three-judge Bench has already reserved its order on the issue of interim stay in the matter.

The application accused the MCD of issuing the impugned notification without waiting for orders of the three-judge Bench.