SC refuses to exempt personal appearance of Chief Secretaries in stray dogs menace case

New Delhi [India], October 31 (ANI): The Supreme Court on Friday declined the request of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to seeking exemption of physical appearance of Chief Secretaries of states and Union Territories in the stray dog menace case.
A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta refused to allow the Chief Secretaries to appear virtually, as requested by the Solicitor General.
"No, let them come physically. It's very unfortunate that court is wasting time here trying to deal with the problems, which should have been addressed by the Municipal Corporation, by the state governments over the years... Parliament frames rules, no action is taken," said Justice Nath.
It added, "We require them to file compliance affidavit, they are sleeping over it... No respect for order of the court. Let them come, we will deal with them. They have to physically come and explain why compliance affidavits were not filed. And then they must file compliance affidavits."
The apex court on October 27 ordered personal presence of Chief Secretaries of all the states and Union Territories except Telangana and West Bengal for November 3 for not filing affidavit in compliance of the court's direction.It had noted that only MCD of Delhi, West Bengal and Telangana have filed affidavits and directed that except these two states, Chief Secretaries of all states and Union Territories have to be present before the court at 10.30 am alongwith explanation as to why compliance affidavits have not been filed.
"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 had said.
On August 22, the top court had directed the states and UTs to file the compliance affidavits. The apex court had taken a suo moto cognisance of menace of stray dogs across the country. A three-judge bench on August 22 had modified a two-judge bench August 11 order which had directed rounding up of all stray dogs in the Delhi-NCR and prohibited their release from dog shelters.
The August 22 order had said that now the stray dogs will be released back to the same area after sterilisation and immunisation, except those dogs which are infected with rabies or are exhibiting aggressive behaviour. It had also restricted public feeding of stray dogs and directed the MCD for creation of dedicated feeding spaces in each municipal wards. It further ordered that persons found feeding the dogs in contravention of its direction shall be liable to be proceeded with under the relevant framework.
The apex court had also expanded the scope of the proceedings on menace of stray dogs and impleaded all states and Union Territories as parties to the case. The August 11 order was limited to the Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) area only. The three-judge bench order had come on pleas seeking stay of its August 11 order of two-judge bench to remove all stray dogs from the localities in the Delhi-NCR region and put them in shelter homes.
On August 11, the top court ordered that all localities in Delhi, Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurugram and Faridabad should be made free of stray dogs and there should not be any compromise, and also made it clear that no captured animal will be released back on the streets.
In the detailed order it has clarified that its directive was not driven by "momentary impulse", rather, it came after thorough and careful deliberation, that the concerned authorities have consistently failed for over two decades to effectively address a serious issue that directly impacts public safety.
A bench of Justice JB Pardiwala R Madadev had said that it has decided to take the matter in its hands becasue of the systematic failure of the authorities over the past two decades to address an issue that strikes at the heart of public safety. It had said that the directions given by it, as a court which functions for the welfare of the people, are both in the interest of humans as well as dogs and "this is not personal".
It had noted that as per the data available on the website of Press Information Bureau there were 37,15,713 reported dog bites in the country and in Delhi alone, there were 25,201 dog bites. (ANI)