New Delhi : The Supreme Court on Thursday blasted local authorities for inaction on the stray dog menace and reserved its order on petitions challenging its August 11 verdict. They should be here taking responsibility, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court, comprising Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and NV Anjaria, said. The top court did not grant a stay on the directions issued to civic bodies by the bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan on August 11.
After the order sparked a massive uproar, the Chief Justice of India withdrew the case from the two-judge bench. On Thursday, the three-judge bench said it would see if any urgent orders or a stay on the August 11 verdict was needed. The order had sparked a huge uproar and outrage from animal activists and some politicians, who argued that there aren’t enough dog shelters in the area, as compared to the number of canines.
Kapil Sibal, representing the petitioners seeking a stay on the order, also made arguments centered around the shortage of dog shelters. He said that directions to round up the dogs and not let them release cannot be implemented as “there are no shelters in the first place”, LiveLaw reported.
On the other hand, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Delhi government, argued that there number of dog bite cases were alarming and were affecting many people. “Thirty seven lakhs a year, 10,000 per day. This is dog bites. Rabies deaths – 305 deaths for the same year, WHO’s modelling shows much higher number,” he reportedly said during the hearing, backing the earlier Supreme Court ruling on rounding up of stray dogs.
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