The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought the response of the Centre on the plea of an NGO for granting “legal entity” status to the entire animal kingdom on a par with human beings to prevent cruelty to animals.
“What exactly do you want? You want animals to have the right to sue and be sued? Do you want them to be given legal personality?” Chief Justice of India S.A. Bobde asked the counsel appearing for Peoples Charioteer Organisation. (A legal entity has a right to sue or be sued for legal rights).
“It’s very unlikely that we can give legal entity to animals,” the bench that includes Justices A.S. Bopanna and V. Ramasubramanian observed.
At one point, the CJI said: “But animals are not equal to human beings. Is your dog equal to you?”
“We understand humans should be punished for hurting animals but we are on the legal entity argument…,” the CJI added while issuing the notice to the Centre.