The Delhi High Court (HC) has stayed for eight weeks its single judge order asking the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) to remove stray dogs from the premises of the Delhi Golf Club (DGC) and relocate them elsewhere.
A Bench, comprising Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath, asked the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) to approach the Supreme Court (SC), which is also seized of a similar matter, for clarification.
“Parties are directed to approach the SC for any clarification. Meanwhile, the order of a single judge is stayed for eight weeks,” the Bench said. The Bench, in view of the SC’s recent order in which it had restrained courts to pass any order on the issue, disposed of the plea.
The apex court had on November 18 asked all States and Union Territories to follow central rules which will override. On November 20, the HC had said it will pass certain directions on the issue after it wondered how to deal with the problem of stray dogs in public and private properties as the rules said that canines have to be relocated at the same place after sterilisation and immunisation.
The Bench was hearing a plea filed by AWBI challenging the order of a single judge asking NDMC to remove stray dogs from the premises of the Delhi Golf Club within a month and relocate them elsewhere, but not on the same property after sterilization. Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw in his November 4 order had said the NDMC cannot insist on releasing the stray dogs back in the private property of the club where they were picked up from.
The AWBI had challenged the November 4 order, saying that under the Animal Birth Control (Dogs) Rules, 2001 framed under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PCA) Act, the canines cannot be relocated to other areas. The Board had also told the court that the SC was seized of the matter and had recently said a “balance between compassion for animals and human lives” has to be struck.
The single judge order had come on a plea by the club, claiming that stray dogs entered its premises in search of food and were now permanently living there. The club in its plea had told the court that the dogs were attacking, killing and eating peacocks, peahens and little chicks as well as the “sambhars and deer” present in the premises, besides occasionally attacking its members and children. It had sought their removal from its premises “to ensure the safety of human beings, peacocks, peahens and their chicks”.