The Supreme Court on Monday directed the Chief Secretaries of West Bengal and Telangana and other states and Union Territories to appear in the court on November 3 to explain why compliance affidavits were not filed in the stray dog case.
In fact, these states have not yet filed affidavits regarding the implementation of the Animal Birth Control (ABC) rules, hence summons have been issued to the Chief Secretaries of all these states. The Supreme Court, in its August 22 order, had directed all the states and union territories to file affidavits regarding compliance with these rules.
Justice Vikram Nath, Justice Sandeep Mehta and Justice N.V. Anjariya’s bench said that only West Bengal, Telangana and Delhi Municipal Corporation (MCD) have filed compliance affidavits. Therefore, the Court has asked the Chief Secretaries of all the remaining States/Union Territories to appear next Monday to explain why they did not file the affidavits. The court also said that no representative was present today on behalf of these defaulting states. The Supreme Court said that the court had issued notices to all the states/UTs and the order was also widely published in the media.
The new order said that stray dogs can be caught, but they will have to be released back in the same area after vaccination and sterilization. This order does not apply to dogs infected with rabies or having aggressive behavior. This rule is now applicable to states and union territories across the country.