According to sources, on Wednesday, the Supreme Court directed the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) to disclose details on dog bites that have occurred across the country in the previous seven years, as well as the steps taken to avoid them.
A panel of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and J K Maheshwari asked the AWBI to submit an affidavit explaining the details and specifying if it wanted the court to impose the regulations. It also said explicitly that, its 2015 ruling does not stop the government or anyone else from approaching jurisdictional courts, including registered societies or High Court.
The bench further stated that, “We do not believe it is the purpose of this court in the aforementioned judgement that all writ petitions or processes before High Courts, civil courts, and authorities should be put on hold, and no lawful orders can be issued by HCs in cases pertaining to stray dogs”.
The Supreme Court had argued in the past that there should be a balance between animal rights and human safety and advocated that those who feed stray dogs be made financially responsible for the expense of immunizations and medical care in the instance that the animal bites someone.
The top court has heard a number of petitions relating to decisions made by various local councils on the culling of stray dogs that has become an issue, particularly in Kerala and Mumbai.
In response to rulings made by many high courts, including the Kerala High Court and the Bombay High Court, a number of NGOs and individual petitioners have filed an appeal to the Supreme Court, urging it to permit local authorities to address the issue of stray dogs in compliance with the law.
image credit : wikimedia commons
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