Staying a communication issued by the respondent (Animal Welfare Board of India – AWBI) which had restrained the petitioner (Compassion for Animals’ Welfare Association – an NGO) from carrying out animal birth control (ABC)/sterilisation and anti-rabies (AR) programmes, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has told the Punjab government to take appropriate steps to ensure implementation of the provisions of the Animal Birth Control (Dogs) Rules, 2001.
“The respondent AWBI and the State of Punjab shall file further status report as regards the measures taken by them for ensuring effective implementation of the Animal Birth Control (Dogs) Rules, 2001, and steps taken to prevent the menace of dog bites/rabies,” said the high court.
Compassion for Animals’ Welfare Association is an animal welfare NGO and is the petitioner in the case.
The petitioner told the high court that “Punjab had reported more than 10,000 dog-bite cases from January to October 2022”. The matter was heard by a bench of Justice Vinod S Bhardwaj.
The petitioner had moved the high court in 2021 against AWBI and others challenging a circular dated February 25, 2021, issued by AWBI and also an order dated September 1, 2021, issued by the respondent (Directorate of Local Government, Punjab) and the subsequent clarification issued by the Directorate of Local Government, Punjab, whereby the petitioner was restrained from carrying out ABC/sterlisation and AR programmes.
The petitioner pointed out before the high court that “as per the data released by the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, there were about 153 lakh stray dogs in 2019. About 17 lakh dog-bite cases were purportedly reported in 2021… Punjab is among the states having reported highest instances of dog bites from January to October 2022 with the number being more than 10,000 cases. Evidently the said number suggests that as many as 1,000 cases are being reported every month which is as many as 30 cases on a daily basis. Nearly 30% of such dog-bite cases are reported to be among children under 14 years of age. Hence, the dog-bite menace needs to be curbed and the drive for vaccination of stray dogs also needs to be scaled up so as to reduce the spread of rabies and mortality as a result thereof”.
The petitioner’s counsels, Harlove Singh Rajput and Gursher Singh Dhillon, contended that the NGO is an animal welfare organisation which is duly recognised by AWBI. After the work orders were issued in favour of the petitioner (NGO), the respondent-AWBI issued a circular dated February 25, 2021, necessitating that the animal welfare organisations have to obtain re-recognition and separate permission for carrying out ABC/AR programmes.
On the strength of the aforesaid circular, a general order was issued by the respondent-Directorate of Local Government, Punjab, as per which no further sterilisation/anti-rabies programmes of stray dogs be run from the petitioner organisation in the urban local bodies under its jurisdiction till further orders and that no work should be allotted. The petitioner thus filed a writ petition before this court challenging the action of the respondents on the ground that AWBI has exceeded its jurisdiction which is advisory in nature and not for making rules.
