New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday said it had not directed the removal of every dog from the streets and the directive was to treat these stray canines according to the Animal Birth Control (ABC) Rules.
While hearing arguments in the stray dogs case, the apex court observed that a dog can smell people who are either afraid of them or have suffered a dog bite and they attack such persons.
A three-judge special bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and N V Anjaria was hearing the pleas including the ones filed by dog lovers seeking modification of its earlier orders and those for stringent compliance with the directives.
“We have not directed the removal of every dog from the streets. The direction is to treat them as per the rules,” Justice Mehta observed.
The bench heard submissions of a battery of lawyers including senior advocates C U Singh, Krishnan Venugopal, Dhruv Mehta, Gopal Sankaranarayanan, Shyam Divan, Sidharth Luthra and Karuna Nundy.
At the outset, senior advocate Gaurav Agarwal, who is assisting the top court as an amicus curiae in the matter, informed the bench that four states had filed their compliance affidavits in the matter on Wednesday.
During his submissions, Singh said in places like Delhi, there is a rodent menace and the national capital also has a unique problem of monkeys.
He said the abrupt removal of canines would lead to an increase in the rodent population, which has consequences.
“When the rodent population goes up, we have seen very disastrous consequences,” he said.
Justice Mehta observed, “In a lighter vein, dogs and cats are enemies. Cats kill rodents. So we should promote more cats.”
Singh said they were not questioning the orders passed by the apex court and were only requesting the bench to revisit it only to modulate it.
“Let these dogs also be regulated in a manner that has proved to be the only efficacious manner, which is sterilisation, vaccination and re-release in the territory,” he said.
The bench said, “Tell us how many dogs each hospital should have roaming around in the corridors, in wards, near patient beds?”
Singh said the top court’s intention in the matter was unquestionable and it had noted how the ABC Rules and orders passed by the courts were not implemented.