NEW DELHI: Terming it “alarming and disturbing,” the Supreme Court on Monday took suo motu cognisance of the growing menace of stray dog attacks, sometimes resulting in fatalities, and directed the matter be placed before the CJI for appropriate directions.
A two-judge bench of Justice J B Pardiwala and Justice R Mahadevan took suo motu cognisance of the issue after going through a media report highlighting the tragic death of a six-year-old Delhi girl due to rabies contraction from a dog bite incident.
“This is a highly disturbing news report... 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 bench noted.
The apex court also said, “The registry has been directed to treat the matter as a suo motu writ petition and place the order along with the news report before the Chief Justice of India for necessary directions.”
Chavi Sharma, a six-year-old from Rohini’s Pooth Kalan area was attacked by a dog on June 30. She succumbed to rabies infection during treatment on July 26.
Following the apex court order, residents of the area questioned, ‘We begged authorities to act, but no one came. Now that a child has died, the MCD has suddenly started removing dogs (from the streets). What were they waiting for?’