HC favours setting up of panel

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 23

In an attempt to put a leash on the ever-growing canine population in the city, the Punjab and Haryana High Court today made it clear that it was in favour of setting up a committee and seeking preodic reports from it.

As the case came up for resumed hearing, Justice Rajan Gupta was also open to the suggestion of a retired High Court Judge heading the committee for implementing a scheme for controlling the ever-growing population of stray dogs, including sterilisation of stray dogs.

The municipal corporation has already floated a tender for hiring an agency to sterilise dogs. Information to this effect was furnished before the Punjab and Haryana High Court by Municipal Commissioner Vivek Partap Singh.

The matter was brought to the High Court’s notice by Gurmukh Singh. In his petition against the Union Territory of Chandigarh through counsel Kunal Mulwani, he had underscored the menace of street dogs in the city, particularly the Rose Garden.

The petitioner had alleged that he was chased by street dogs while on a morning walk in February this year. He had alleged that several cases of dog bite had been reported in the area. In his petition, he had questioned: “whether there was need to have separate ponds/shelters for dogs, so that they do not prove a menace to the general public; and whether in the eventuality of dog bite in public place the corporation is liable to pay compensation to the citizen”.

The High Court, in October 2012, had directed the states of Punjab and Haryana, along with the Union Territory of Chandigarh, to frame a comprehensive scheme. A Division Bench had directed that scheme should be “in the form of rules or otherwise”, keeping in view a judgment and decree of a Delhi Court, and “Comprehensive Guidelines for Dog Control and Management” framed by the High Court of Bombay in “CWP No. 1596 of 1998”.

The Bench had asserted: “On the lines of the rules, judgments /guidelines, comprehensive scheme (s) shall be formulated by the respondent –authorities within a period of two months from today and those would be effectively enforced/executed thereafter”.

Disposing of the petition, the Bench had concluded: “The respondents after formulating the scheme (s) within two months shall place the same before the court to signify that action as directed has been taken”.

The guidelines lay down that no stray dogs shall be killed as a rule, subject to the exception of critically ill, violent, fatally injured or rabid dogs. It also lays down that violent, diseased and incurably ill and mortally wounded dogs and those capable of transmitting diseases as identified and diagnosed by a qualified veterinarian be killed, shall be euthanised in a humane manner.

About the petition

The matter was brought to the High Court’s notice by Gurmukh Singh. In his petition against the Union Territory of Chandigarh through counsel Kunal Mulwani, he had underscored the menace of street dogs in the city, particularly the Rose Garden.

The petitioner had questioned: “whether there was need to have separate ponds/shelters for dogs, so that they do
not prove a menace to the general public; and whether in the eventuality of dog bite in public place the corporation is liable to pay compensation to the citizen”.