Stray Dog Issue | Supreme Court Lists Matter For Final Hearing On 10th January

The Supreme Court on Wednesday (01.11.2023) listed the matter relating to the curbing of stray dog attacks in the country on 10th January for final hearing.A bench of Justice J K Maheswari and Justice K V Viswanathan have been considering a batch of matters including the plea filed by the Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (KeSCPCR) citing increase in stray dog attacks in Kerala, especially against children, seeking directions to curb the menace. The statutory body has filed an intervention application before the Supreme Court in a pending civil appeal in which the Kannur district panchayat has also filed a plea for a direction to euthanize suspected rabid or extremely dangerous dogs in the district. Five High Court orders are under challenge, in the batch of matters before the Apex Court.The Supreme Court in the previous hearing had orally remarked that it does not intend to issue any interim directions and that it wants to hear the matter on merits and issue concrete guidelines. "Our intention in this case is very clear. We don't want to give any interim directions. We want to go through statue, rules, implementation, problem and solution and issue guidelines. Thereby, the litigation in other High Courts can be curtailed." Justice J K Maheswari had said in the previous hearing.When the matter came up for consideration today, the bench noted that service to several respondents were incomplete. The Court thus directed service to be completed on unserved respondents in 4 weeks. The Court also specifically stated that if at the next date of hearing, service is incomplete, those matters will be segregated and hearing will commence on matters where service is complete. The Court also directed the Nodal officers on either sides of the matter to file compilations of affidavits and written submissions by December 15th. Case Title: Animal Welfare Board of India V. People For Elimination of Stray Troubles C.A. No. 5988/2019

Stray Dog Issue | Supreme Court Lists Matter For Final Hearing On 10th January

Sheryl Sebastian

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