The Supreme Court of India on 6 Feb, 2013, stayed the order passed by the Karnataka High Court on the 7th of December, 2012. The Karnataka High Court had directed the BBMP to cull dogs which are a ‘menace’ or ‘cause nuisance’, has been stayed by the Supreme Court of India.
The Supreme Court stay order has been passed a short while ago, in a Special Leave Petition filed by the Animal Welfare Board of India numbered as S.L.P. (C) No. 4453 of 2013, and titled ‘Animal Welfare Board of India Versus B. Krishna Bhat & Others’.
The mandate to the BBMP to cull strays that are a ‘menace’ or ‘cause nuisance’, is therefore no longer operative. Direction 5 issued by the High Court vide its judgment, which contains the mandate, reads as follows:
“(5) Dogs which do not come within the scope of Rule 9 or 10 but which are a menace or cause nuisance irrespective of whether there is evidence of such dogs having mauled or bitten children or adults, could be exterminated in the manner specified in Rule 9 of the ABC Rules, 2001 under the orders of the Commissioner of the BBMP as per the provisions of KMC Act, 1976.”
The operation of this direction has been stayed; and the Board’s Appeal will now be heard along with the other stray dog matters pending before the Supreme Court, the lead matter being ‘Animal Welfare Board of India Versus P.E.S.T. & Others’, numbered as S.L.P. (C) No. 691 of 2009.
You can read more about the Karnataka High Court judgment, and Our Analysis of the High Court judgment, and the judgment itself here & here
In fact a stay of the operation of the order passed by the High Court, should have been sought at Bangalore on the 7th of December, 2012, itself; but the AWBI counsel also representing CUPA and the other AWO’s impleading in the case at Bangalore, before the Karnataka High Court) refused to do so.
The stay order has now been passed by the Supreme Court; but in the interregnum, between the 7th of December, 2012, when it should have been sought at Bangalore, and the 6th of February, 2013, when it has been passed at New Delhi, the BBMP will perhaps have acted, and exterminated dogs brandished as a ‘menace’ or such as ‘cause nuisance’, ‘irrespective of whether there is evidence of such dogs having mauled or bitten children or adults’.
The stay order shall be available with us soon, and shall be posted immediately.
