Supreme Court reserves order on pleas challenging judgement on stray dogs, no stay issued

A new bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and NV Anjaria has refused to put a stay on the Supreme Court's previous order. 

Appearing for the central government, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta argued as quoted by Bar and Bench, "In a democracy, there is one is vocal majority and one who silently suffers. We have seen videos of people eating chicken egg etc and then claiming to be animal lovers. It is an issue to be resolved. Children are dying...Sterilisation does not stop rabies...even if immunised..."

"WHO data shows 305 deaths a year. Most of children are under age group of 15. Nobody is a animal hater...Dogs do not have to be killed...they have to be separated. Parents cannot send children out to play. Young girls are mutilated."

Appearing for an NGO named Project Kindness, senior advocate Kapil Sibal accused the authorities of not building the shelter homes and siphoning the money.

He said as quoted by the report, "This is first time I hear SG saying that laws are in place but it need not be followed...Question is to who is to comply with it. Question is has the municipal corporation built shelter homes...have the dogs been sterilised? Money has been siphoned off. No shelters are there. Such orders are suo motu. No notice. Now dogs are picked up. You say once sterilised, do not leave them. This need to be argued in depth."

Hearing all the sides, Justice Nath observed as quoted by Bar and Bench, "Hearing the petitioners, Justice Parliament frames rules and laws...but not implemented. On one hand, humans are suffering and on the other hand, the animal lovers are here. Have some responsibility... all those who have filed interventions have to file affidavits and furnish evidence. All of you."

The three judges heard the case again after Chief Justice of India BR Gavai on Wednesday assured to re-examination the order that has triggered outrage.

The top court on Monday ruled that all stray dogs from the residential localities will have to be shifted to the shelters within eight weeks and any organisation attempting to block it will face the strictest punishment.

A bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan passed the order while hearing the matter after taking note of a news report on deaths due to rabies following dog bites.

The court said it will only hear the Centre's argument and not from any dog lover or a third party in the case.

"We are not doing this for us, it is for the public interest. So, no sentiments of any nature should be involved. Action should be taken at the earliest," Justice Pardiwala had said as quoted by NDTV.

"Pick up dogs from all localities and shift them to shelters. For the time being, forget the rules."

The court had ordered the Delhi government, the civic body MCD and New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) to pick up all stray dogs from residential areas, colonies of Delhi-NCR and place them in shelters.

The top court had also barred the adoption of stray dogs.

The civic authorities in Delhi-NCR had been asked to set up dog shelters, relocate the stray dogs, and depute professionals who can tackle, sterilise, and immunise the dogs.

From January to June this year, over 35,000 animal bite incidents have been reported from Delhi-NCR.

As per the official data produced by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), 49 cases of rabies have been reported in the same period, reports said.