U’khand HC to chief secretary: List steps taken to tackle canine terror

The Uttarakhand High Court on Monday directed the chief secretary to file an affidavit within two weeks listing the action taken or to be taken to tackle canine terror in the state. The court also directed the state government to include major municipal corporations as parties in the case.

The directions were given by a division bench of Justice VK Bisht and Justice Alok Singh in response to a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Nainital-based Girish Chandra Kholia in August 2017. The PIL highlights the issue of increasing canine menace in the state and claims that elderly people, children and women were being attacked by dogs. The PIL states that in last five years, over 11,000 dog bite cases have been reported, said Gopal K Verma, counsel for the petitioner.

Verma said despite the HC issuing an order on checking dog menace in the state on June 14, the state government had not complied with the directions.

“We apprised the court that despite their landmark directions, the state government had not taken action so far in the matter,” said Verma.

The lawyer said he also told the court that a man was mauled to death recently in Haridwar district and the incident was also reported by the local media.

The next hearing in the matter has been scheduled after two weeks.

On June 14, the high court had directed the government to ensure within next six months that there were no stray dogs on the roads in the state. The HC had also noted that the state government may consider framing a law for culling the “dangerous stray dogs”.

The HC had ruled that concerned authorities will determine the number of stray dogs in every town, city and village and accordingly necessary arrangements be made for the construction of shelter house in every place.

It had also had directed the chief secretary to issue necessary directions to all the authorities concerned to take appropriate steps for checking the dog menace in their respective areas. The court made it clear that the directions issued by the chief secretary will be binding on all the authorities including municipal bodies and local bodies.

The division bench had also directed the government that the municipal and local authorities will also verify from each and every house whether their dogs are registered with the municipal board and if they are not, they be registered as per the law.

The HC had maintained that given the importance of the matter, the non-compliance of the directions issued by the chief secretary to the local authorities, will be treated as contempt of the court’s order.