The Supreme Court on Friday refused to grant an exemption to Chief Secretaries of states and Union Territories from appearing in person in the ongoing case concerning the menace of stray dogs across India.The Apex Court has rejected a plea to this effect, insisting they must attend physically.
A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta dismissed Solicitor General Tushar Mehta’s request to allow the officials to attend the hearing virtually, insisting instead that they must appear before the court physically. "No, let them come physically," Justice Nath said.The Supreme Court bench noted that it was "very unfortunate" that the top court was "wasting time here trying to deal with the problems, which should have been addressed by the Municipal Corporation, by the state governments over the years... Parliament frames rules, no action is taken".
The bench noted that several states had failed to file compliance affidavits despite earlier directions. Justice Nath noted that the states were not showing "respect for the order of the court". He said that "We require them to file compliance affidavit, they are sleeping over it... No respect for order of the court. Let them come; we will deal with them. They have to physically come and explain why compliance affidavits were not filed. And then they must file compliance affidavits."
The order follows the court’s October 27 directive, which required the personal presence of Chief Secretaries from all states and Union Territories—except Telangana and West Bengal—on November 3 for failing to comply with its earlier instructions. Only the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, West Bengal, and Telangana had submitted affidavits on time.
The court noted that continuous incidents have led to "the image of the country...being shown down in the eyes of foreign nations". Justice Nath added that they were also reading news reports.The Supreme Court has been monitoring the issue since it took suo motu cognisance of the rising number of stray dog attacks. On August 22, it ordered all states and UTs to file compliance reports and expanded the case beyond Delhi-NCR to cover the entire country.
The bench also modified an earlier August 11 order that had directed rounding up all stray dogs in Delhi-NCR. It ruled that sterilised and vaccinated dogs should be released back into their areas, except those that are rabid or aggressive. The court also ordered municipal bodies to set up designated feeding zones and warned that violators of its feeding restrictions would face legal action.According to official India recorded over 3.7 million dog bite cases, including more than 25,000 in Delhi alone.
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