"No Contest" Between Animal Cruelty, Stray Dog Attacks: Court's Big Remark

The Supreme Court hearing into the ongoing stray dogs case entered the third day on Friday, with the top court bench advising a counsel that it did not want the proceedings to turn into a competition between instances of animal cruelty and dog attack videos.

The bench's remark came as Senior Advocate Raj Shekhar Rao, representing an animal welfare organisation, urged the Supreme Court to consider videos showing alleged mishandling of stray dogs.

Rao said, "The court did not intend its interim order to have trappings of a final order. Recently, this court passed an order about collective commitment towards wildlife and compassion for all living beings. Your lordships were the author of that. Empathy must guide the conduct of individuals but also the court."

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Rao said that though the directions seem to be in teeth of what the law suggested, the reality is that there is no mechanism. "Doctrine of proportionality - was the Court's order the most proportionate in the available background?" he questioned.

"Animals are per se good. The CSVR (Capture, Sterilise, Vaccinate, and Release) model achieves safety," Rao further said and pointed out that his client placed on record videos to show the directions were being implemented.

The counsel added that the dog population at the Campus Law Centre (CLC), Delhi University, had come down. "Please consider giving institutions six months to see if they can address the issue on their own. I am not talking about hospitals. I have given details of videos where dogs were mishandled."

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After listening to Rao's remarks, the Supreme Court bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and NV Anjaria said it did not want the proceedings in the stray dogs case to turn into a competition.

Justice Mehta told Rao, "There are many videos on YouTube about dogs attacking children and the elderly; we do not want a contest."

The next hearing will now be held on Tuesday.