Uttaranchal High Court: The Division Bench of V.K. Bist and Alok Singh, JJ. has ordered in a Public Interest Litigation to shift all stray dogs with the State to shelter houses within six months.
The question before the Court was whether the life of a citizen is important than the stray dogs and whether the State authorities are duty bound/responsible for protecting/saving the life of the public of the State from the dog biting of stray dogs. Petitioner submitted that during last five years, more than eleven thousand cases of dog biting have come into light in which several persons have died also.
Though counsel for the State submitted that the work in this regard is to be done by the respective municipal bodies but considering the importance of the matter, the Court directed the Chief Secretary of the State to issue necessary directions to all concerned for taking appropriate steps in this regard. It was also made clear that the direction issued by the Chief Secretary of the State will be binding on all the authorities and non-compliance of the same would be treated as contempt of Court.
First of all, the authority concerned will have to determine the number of stray dogs in every town, city, and village. Necessary arrangements will have to be made for the construction of shelter house in every place. Court also suggested that the State Government may consider for making a law regarding the killing of dangerous stray dogs. The municipal and local authorities will also have to verify from each and every house whether their dogs are registered with the municipal board and if they found that the dogs are not registered they would ensure the registration as per law. [Girish Chandra Kholia v. State Of Uttarakhand,2018 SCC OnLine Utt 556, order dated 14-06-2018]
