Animal advocates keep fingers crossed as new Supreme Court bench to hear stray dog case today

Following widespread protests and anger over a Supreme Court order directing to permanently relocate all strays from streets to shelters in Delhi, a new three-judge bench of the top court will hear the matter afresh on Monday.

 

Chief Justice B.R. Gavai had on Wednesday withdrawn the case from the earlier bench and posted it for hearing on Thursday before a new bench led by Justice Vikram Nath. The special bench also comprises Justices Sandeep Mehta and N.V. Anjaria.

 

The controversial order to remove all the stray dogs from the streets was issued by a bench of Justice J.B. Pardiwala and Justice R. Mahadevan on August 11. The court observed that instances of dog bites had given rise to an "extremely grim" situation and ordered the permanent relocation of all strays in Delhi-NCR "at the earliest".

 

The bench also said dog shelters will have to be augmented over time and directed Delhi authorities to start with creating shelters of around 5,000 canines within six to eight weeks.

 

The order elicited sharp criticism from animal lovers and a large section of the society, who argue that if the stray dogs are vaccinated properly, there will be no need to remove them.

 

The government should focus on animal birth control so that their numbers do not increase, they say.

 

According to an official report, around 700 to 800 dog bite patients are reaching the government hospital every month in Gurugram. Most of these were bitten by pet dogs. There was a shortage of rabies injections in the hospitals on several occasions, the report said.

 

"Work should be done for animal birth control. A drive should be conducted in Delhi-NCR to catch and vaccinate the stray dogs. If the government needs volunteers for this, it will get cooperation. Removing dogs in this manner is wrong," a member of the NGO, Save Animal, told PTI news agency.

India