NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court is scheduled to pronounce its judgement on Tuesday in the batch of pleas seeking a direction for modification of its earlier August 11 orders in the stray dogs case.
A bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Vikram Nath, who reserved its judgement on January 29 -- after hearing the submissions extensively from the petitioners, respondents, Union of India, Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI), dog lovers, victims of dog bites, animal rights activists, and lawyers representing the Centre and state governments, many intervenors and others in the case -- will deliver the verdict on Tuesday.
While reserving the verdict, the Supreme Court had asked the AWBI to expeditiously decide the applications filed by local organizations seeking recognition to carry out animal welfare programmes like sterilization and others.
The Supreme Court had on July 28, last year, taken suo motu cognizance of this issue.
Following this, after hearing of completion of the case, Supreme Court had on August 11 last year in its order directed to round up all the stray dogs from Delhi-NCR within eight weeks and be sent to dedicated dog shelters to be set up by civic authorities, after noting that it wants the "national capital to be free of stray dogs."
"We are not doing this for us, it is for the public interest. So, no sentiments of any nature should be involved. Action should be taken at the earliest. We want national capital to be free of stray dogs," said, a two-judge bench of the top court, headed by Justice J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan.
This was subsequently challenged by many before the court seeking reversal and many modifications to it.
The court had, on August 22, primarily reversed its earlier order directing the authorities to move all stray dogs to shelters and said they can be released to the same area from where they were captured after proper sterilisation and immunisation, except those infected with rabies or exhibiting aggressive behaviour. It barred the feeding of the dogs in public places.
The August 22 order expanded the scope of the stray dogs case beyond the Delhi NCR and directed that all states and Union Territories be made parties in the matter, and instructed them to file compliance affidavit.
The apex court passed these directions after taking the suo motu cognisance over the serious issue on July 28, after goingg through a media report highlighting the tragic and brutal death of a six-year-old girl in Delhi due to rabies following a dog bite.
The top court had also directed that dogs be detained in pounds, and the dog shelter would be monitored by CCTV mechanism to ensure that no dogs are taken out.
It had directed the civic authorities in the Delhi NCR region -- the national capital, Noida, Ghaziabad and Gurugram, Faridabad etc -- to immediately build dog shelters, move stray dogs and update the court in eight days.
The court went on to add that these shelters, must have professionals who can deal with dogs, carry out sterilisation and immunisation and the dogs should not be let out. "CCTVs must be installed to ensure that dogs cannot move out of the shelters. The civic authorities have also been instructed to start a helpline for reporting dog bite cases," the court opined.
The court had earlier termed as "alarming and disturbing," the growing menace of stray dog attacks and the resulting fatalities, as it had taken SMC over the serious issue and decided to hear the matter on its own.
It had earlier observed, while referring to the a media report, that this was a highly disturbing news report titled as: "City hounded by strays and kids pay price". "It contains extremely troubling details. There are reports of hundreds of dog bite incidents from both cities and peripheral areas, many of which have led to rabies infections. Ultimately, it is infants and senior citizens who are falling prey to this deadly disease," the court had noted in its order, on July 28.
The case in which the top court took SMC was that of Chavi Sharma, a six-year-old from Delhi's Pooth Kalan area who was attacked on June 30 by a stray dog. After getting proper medical treatment, she succumbed to the infection on July 26.
It is to be noted that this SMC power is assigned to courts in Articles 32 and 226 of Indian Constitution, as it deal with the enforcement of fundamental rights, and Article 142, which grants the Supreme Court broad powers.
The SMC means a court takes action on its own, without a formal letter, petition or complaint.