New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday listed February for the hearing of the petitions relating to the stray dog menace in Kerala and other parts of the country.
A bench of justices JK Maheshwari and Sudhanshu Dhulia posted the matter for February.
The bench also asked the parties to make available the concerned issues, related laws, views taken by the different High Courts, and various others.
During the hearing, Justice Dhulia, in a lighter vein, remarked that if a dog is barking at night and that disturbs someone, then it will not be covered here.
The top court was hearing the pending petition filed by the Animal Welfare Board of India, challenging a 2006 judgement of the Kerala High Court that empowered local self-government institutions to kill stray dogs.
The petition was filed in the apex court after the Kerala government in 2015 decided to eliminate stray dogs after a spate of dog attacks on people.
Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights moved an application seeking to intervene as a party in the case and apprised the top court that the Commission received many complaints about the nuisance of stray dogs and the plight of children who have been fatally bitten by them and the Commission has also taken suo-motu cases on several such incidents.
The Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, in its application, told the court that there are large numbers of dog bite incidents reported across the state, especially against children.
The commission mentioned that 5794 stray dog attacks were reported in 2019, 3951 cases in 2020, 7927 cases in 2021, 11776 cases were reported in 2022 and 6276 cases were reported up to June 19, 2023, in Kannur District.
