The Supreme Court on Wednesday flagged continuing instances of stray dog menace in the country, noting that even judges were among the victims.
“In the last 20 days, two judges in Rajasthan have suffered accidents involving stray animals. One of the judges has suffered serious spinal injuries. It is a very serious issue,” a three-judge bench headed by Justice Vikram Nath observed during the hearing.
The bench noted that the top court’s order to impound stray animals was being defied by the authorities in several parts of the country.
On November 7, a bench of Justices Sandeep Mehta and N.V. Anjaria had directed the authorities across the country to remove stray dogs from public places such as educational institutions, bus stops and railway stations and relocate them to designated shelters to check rising instances of dog bites and rabies-related deaths. It had also ordered the removal of other stray animals from national and state highways to curb accidents.
The court had said that the stray dogs, after being sterilised, should not be let back into the colonies/areas from where they were picked up.
The bench had directed all authorities of the Centre, states and Union Territories to comply with the directives and file compliance reports.
The matter came up for hearing on Wednesday with a raft of applications filed by animal lovers, prompting the bench to make the fresh observations on the rising dog-bite cases.
Solicitor-general Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, said gated communities should get to decide whether dogs should be roaming around on their premises. “Suppose, 90 per cent of residents feel it would be disastrous for children, but 10 per cent insist on dogs being allowed to roam, then somebody may bring buffaloes tomorrow! They may say I want to have buffalo milk,” he argued.
Several advocates, appearing for dog lovers, alleged that media reports of rabies-related deaths and dog bites were exaggerated.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for some dog lovers, said if a tiger killed a man, it did not mean that all tigers in the country should be killed. He said authorities must put in a proper coordinated plan to control the dog population. He suggested the CSVR (captured, sterilised, vaccinated and released) model adopted in advanced countries.
The arguments will continue on Thursday.