Stray dog issue due to inaction of local authorities: SC reserves order

The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved its orders on petitions seeking a stay on its August 11 order in a suo motu case to round up stray dogs in Delhi-NCR and send them to dog shelters with immediate effect.

“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,” a three-judge Bench led by Justice Vikram Nath said.

The hearing took place after CJI BR Gavai on Wednesday assigned the matter to a new three-judge Bench led by Justice Nath following widespread protests across India over the top court’s order to relocate stray dogs in Delhi-NCR. Several petitioners sought recall of the SC’s August 11 directions issued by a Bench of Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice R Mahadevan.

The Bench, which also included Justice Sandeep Mehta and Justice NV Anjaria, reserved its order on the issue on interim stay after hearing Solicitor General Tushar Mehta for the Delhi Government, Additional Solicitor General Archana Dave Pathak for MCD and senior advocates Kapil Sibal, AM Singhvi, Siddharth Luthra, Colin Gonsalves and others for various animal rights organisations and activists.

At the very outset, the Solicitor General submitted that there have been several instances of children dying due to rabies after dog bites and that the stray dog problem needed to be resolved. It’s not something to be contested, he added.

“Sterilisation does not stop rabies. Even if the dogs are immunised, that won’t stop them from mutilating children… 37 lakh dog bites happen every year… which is an average of about 10,000 dog bites every day... About 20,000 rabies deaths happen every year as per WHO statistics,” Mehta said.

“Nobody is an animal hater. No one is saying dogs have to be killed…but they have to be segregated,” Mehta told the Bench.

“We are unable to send the children out to play in the open… There is a very loud vocal minority and a silent suffering majority. I have seen people posting videos of eating meat etc. and then claiming to be animal lovers…Your lordships will have to find a solution. Ultimately, the solution is not in the rules,” Mehta submitted.

Terming the situation created by the court’s August 11 order as “very serious”, Sibal urged the top court to stay some of the directions, including the rounding up of stray dogs from all localities “at the earliest” and relocating them to dog shelters. “They (dogs) are part of our environment,” Sibal submitted.

“This is the first time I hear the Solicitor General saying that laws are in place but they need not be followed…The question is who is to comply with it. Has the municipal corporation built shelters... have dogs been sterilised? Money has been siphoned off. No shelters are there,” he said.

Pointing out that the order was passed suo motu without any notice, Sibal said, “They are picking up dogs, where will they (dogs) go? Order says do not release them. This is a very serious situation, this needs to be argued in depth. My only request, this order be stayed.”

Singhvi said, “With the best of intentions, the order really puts the cart before the horse. If the shelters already existed, the directions would not be a problem… The government in Parliament has answered that there have been zero cases of dog bites in Delhi this year.”

On August 11, a Bench led by Justice JB Pardiwala had issued directions 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.