The Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court on Thursday 20 October, 2022, ordered all city authorities, including the police to file charges against anybody blocking the authority of Civic Officials to take action against deadly stray dogs as a message to all animal lovers. The Bombay High Court ruled that anyone wanting to feed stray dogs must also adopt them. The petitioner claims that this is the first significant ruling by a High Court following a Supreme Court clarification on October 12, 2022, that the High Court would not be prohibited from considering cases involving stray dogs, as per media reports.

"We further direct the Commissioner, Nagpur Municipal Corporation to ensure that, no feeding of street dogs takes place at any place except at the own place of the dog feeder or in the dog shelter homes or any other authorized place and we also direct him to impose penalty for any breach of these directions, which penalty may not be more than Rs. 200 for every breach as per the resolution already passed in this behalf by Nagpur Municipal Corporation.” 

The feeding of stray dogs must only take place in people's homes, according to a division bench  of justices Sunil Shukre and Anil Pansare. Dogs have been the cause of several instances in the past. Recently, a 1-year-old boy died after being bitten by a group of stray dogs on the grounds of the Lotus Boulevard Society in Noida's sector 100. Another incident that received attention included a 5-year-old child from the Madhya Pradesh district of Khargone who passed away after being attacked by stray dogs. The instructions were given at the hearing of a Dhantoli Nagrik Mandal intervention application. Social activist Vijay Talewar filed it in 2006, appealing for the management of the growing stray dogs issues.

The bench made it plain that no regulation or ruling would prevent NMC officials from taking the required action against vicious dogs. On the basis of citizen complaints, the authorities are free to capture and remove them from the area.

Source:Media Reports