Stray dogs case: Building castles in air, SC slams states for not complying with its orders

As state governments dithered in complying with its directions to enhance their stray dog sterilisation capacity, the Supreme Court on Wednesday said, “They (state governments) are all building castles in the air.”

While hearing arguments of states on pleas seeking modification of its earlier orders for removal of stray dogs from institutional areas, a Special Bench of Justice Vikram Nath, Justice Sandeep Mehta and Justice NV Anjaria expressed displeasure over the progress made and said they engaged in “storytelling”.

It disapproved of “vague” affidavits filed by some states and UTs on removal of stray dogs from public places. The affidavits did not give specific details about the number of dogs removed from institutions or the number of dog-bite incidents, it lamented.

Taking note of incidents of dog attacks on tourists on beaches in Goa and Kerala, the Bench said stray dogs affected tourism as well. It said dogs were attracted to beaches due to the presence of carcasses of fish. It agreed with the Amicus Curiae Gaurav Aggarwal’s suggestion that stray dogs picked up from beaches shouldn’t be released back to the same places.

Aggarwal explained to the Bench the data furnished by Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, HP, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, MP, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Delhi and J&K. While most of them sought three to six months to implement the order, some of them said necessary budgetary allocations had been made and steps were underway to develop adequate infrastructure.

On Haryana’s affidavit, the Bench noted that there was no mention of steps taken to remove stray dogs from institutional areas.