NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved the order on an interim prayer seeking a stay on the order by its two-judge bench over the stray dogs. While hearing, the apex court grilled the local authorities for their inaction, which led to severe problems.Huge uproar erupted after the August 11 order passed by Justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan. Taking cognisance of the matter, Chief Justice B R Gavai withdrew the case and posted it for hearing on Thursday. “The whole problem is because of the inaction of local authorities,” said the apex court during the hearing.
Here are 10 takeaways from SC’s hearing:
SC’s observation
- The three-judge bench comprising Justices Nath, Sandeep Mehta and N V Anjaria reserved order on the interim prayer seeking a stay on the August 11 order of picking up strays from the streets of Delhi-NCR.
- The apex court grilled civic officials, saying, “The whole problem is because of the inaction of local authorities. Everyone who has filed an intervention will have to take responsibility.”
Children are dying, issue needs to be resolved, Delhi Govt tells SC
- Delhi government, during the hearing, told SC that the issue of stray dogs needs to be resolved and contested, adding that children are dying due to dog bites, causing rabies.
- Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Delhi government, presented data before the bench saying, over 37 lakh reported dog bites in a year in the country. “Nobody is an animal hater,” Mehta told the bench.
- Mehta told the Supreme Court that it is a contest between a vocal minority vs a silent majority who are suffering because of dog bites.
‘Vocal minority vs silent majority’
- Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who was appearing for an NGO, asserted that the situation is “very serious” and the matter needed to be argued in depth.
- Sibal further sought a stay on the order passed by the apex court on August 11, directing the removal of stray dogs from streets.
- He asked, “Has the Municipal corporation built shelter homes for dogs? Have the dogs been sterilised? Now, the dogs are being picked up. However, the order states that once sterilised, the stray dogs should not be left out in the community.”
- Singhvi also opposed the two-bench order, saying that dog bites exist, but there have been zero rabies deaths in Delhi this year. “Of course, dog bites are bad, but you cannot create a horror situation like this,” he said.
- The apex court will decide whether the order passed by its division bench on the stray dog issue is to be stayed or not.