New Delhi, Nov 7: Having regard to the “alarming rise of dog-bite incidents,” the Supreme Court on Friday ordered that every educational institution, hospital, public sports complexes, bus stand and depots, railway stations, etc must be fenced properly to prevent the entry of stray dogs. It will be the responsibility of the concerned local self-government institutions to pick up stray dogs from such institutions/areas, and shift them to designated dog shelters after vaccination and sterilisation in accordance with the Animal Birth Control Rules. The Court further ordered that stray dogs picked up from these areas must not be released in the area from which they were picked up. “Permitting the same would frustrate the very purpose of liberating such institutions from the presence of stray dogs,” the Court observed.
A bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and NV Anjaria passed the order in the suo motu Stray Dogs matter. The Court directed that the local bodies must carry out periodic inspections to ensure that no stray dog habitat exists in such premises, Live Law reported.
The Court further passed directions for the removal of stray cattle and other animals from roads and highways. Background On July 28, a bench of Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice R Mahadevan took suo motu cognizance of the stray dog issue based on a Times of India report titled “In a city hounded by strays, kids pay price”.
On August 11, the bench expressed serious concerns about the menace of dog bites/rabies and passed directions for Delhi government authorities to relocate the dogs to shelters while barring their release. The bench ordered the authorities in the National Capital Territory of Delhi to immediately start picking up stray dogs from all localities and shift them to dog shelters. The directions also extended to Noida, Gurugram and Ghaziabad.
