"The bench did not hear any party...": People for Animals India Trustee questions SC's stray dog order

New Delhi [India], November 7 (ANI): After the Supreme Court passed the order to relocate stray dogs from all the public institutions, including schools, colleges, hospitals, railway stations, and bus stops, Gauri Maulekhi, Trustee at People for Animals India, expressed shock and disbelief at the SC ruling.
"On November 3, the Supreme Court said that they were going to pass interim directions regarding dogs in institutional areas. Today, the bench assembled, read the order and did not hear any party. We are shocked to hear the orders that were passed. It was regarding the removal of dogs from certain areas," she said.
"We are shocked to hear the orders that were passed. It was regarding the removal of dogs from certain areas. These areas have been loosely defined as educational, medical or sports institutions across the country. The order has been to make peripheral walls and fences within two weeks in these areas and deny the ingress of dogs and remove all dogs," she added.
Maulekhi further stated that the order will be quite difficult to follow as there are institutions that actually take good care of the street animals.
"I don't see that playing out very easily in the country because there are institutions that look after hundreds of their dogs very well. Some of the larger institutions, like IITs, JNU, and AIIMS, look after their dogs, which are neutered and vaccinated. The court has also asked for fencing to be done around bus stops and railway stations, which is going to be a nightmare for the administration..." she stated.
"I would wait to read the order when it is uploaded, and we will seek necessary remedies. The states would be completely incapable of executing it within two weeks for every educational institution, when some of them don't even have classrooms..." she added.
In a sharp attack on the bench that passed the order, she said that despite submitting solutions to curb the dog bite problems, the bench did not hear it, and called it an unfortunate ruling for both the dogs and the administration.
"I don't know what kind of a sterilized country we are trying to live in. We had prepared a road map, submitted it with the amicus for what steps can be taken to prevent conflict in institutional areas, and how neutering and vaccination and strengthening of peripheral walls can be done within a period of time in a graded manner, and responsibility can be affixed on these institutions to ensure that feeding is done responsibly. But that was disregarded today..." she said
"The bench did not hear it, the amicus did not place it on record before the bench, and that is why the bench passed again sweeping directions like the ones that were passed on August 11. This is actually unfortunate that... But without listening to all parties, just offhandedly asking for dogs to be removed is just going to aggravate the problem. While it might seem like a solution on paper, it's going to be a nightmare in the country..." she added.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court, while taking into consideration the "alarming rise of dog bite incidents", ordered all states and Union Territories (UTs) to ensure the removal of all stray dogs from every educational institution, hospital, public sports complexes, bus stands, railway stations, etc. The dogs will not return to their respective areas after the sterilization. (ANI)