The Supreme Court on Monday slammed states and Union Territories for not filing compliance affidavits in connection with its stray dogs order of August 22. A three-judge special bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and NV Anjaria noted that only the Municipal Corporation of Delhi and states of West Bengal and Telangana have filed their compliance affidavits in pursuance to the apex court’s order.
The bench directed the chief secretaries of states and Union Territories, other than West Bengal and Telangana, to appear before it on November 3 to explain why compliance affidavits were not filed in the stray dogs case. The court said its order contained everything.
“Continuous incidents are happening and the image of the country is being shown as down in the eyes of foreign nations. We are also reading news reports,” Justice Nath was quoted as saying by Livelaw.
What is the stray dogs case?
The Supreme Court had on August 22 expanded the scope of the stray dogs case beyond the confines of Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) and ordered that all states and Union Territories be made parties in the matter.
Then the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) said that relocation Delhi’s nearly one million stray dogs to permanent shelters could drain its finances, with early estimates putting the daily bill at Rs 11 crore. According to reports, the civic body said that feeding, transporting, and caring for each dog would cost at least Rs 110 a day.
This reiterates what the dog lovers and animal rights groups have been saying since Supreme Court’s relocation directive. The MCD’s statement has put a spotlight on the gigantic price tag of complying with the Supreme Court’s recent relocation order.
Several celebrities also opined against the order and actor John Abraham even wrote to the CJI to reconsider the order given by the apex court.
The Supreme Court later had modified its earlier direction prohibiting the release of vaccinated stray dogs from pounds in Delhi-NCR, calling it “too harsh”. The top court had said the dogs could be released post sterilisation and de-worming, after animal lovers held massive agitation across the national capital against the previous order.
The SC had take suo moto cognisance of an incident where a stray dog attacked a child, and then ordered to vaccinate and sterile the canines. The court had also ordered dog shelters, but experts argued the infrastructure would take time to be in place.