The Delhi High Court Wednesday dismissed the plea of South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) seeking modification of a 2007 direction to it to catch monkeys from the city and release them into the Ridge area.
A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice C Hari Shankar said once the issue was finally decided by the court and disposed of in 2007, anyone aggrieved with the order should file an appeal or review and not an application seeking modification of the decision.
The bench told the corporation that the court was "not going to hear any of your (SDMC) reasons for inability, disability or deliberate non-compliance of the order."
"Such an application for modification is not permitted after a writ petition is disposed of with directions. We see no reason to entertain it. Application is dismissed," the court said.
The 2007 direction from the high court to relocate the monkeys from the urban areas of the national capital to the Ridge area here came on a PIL filed by advocate Meera Bhatia on behalf of the residents of New Friends Colony here seeking an end to the menace posed by the simians.
Subsequently, the petition was revived by Bhatia in 2012 alleging that the authorities, including the corporation and the Delhi government, have not ensured that the national capital was free of monkeys.
Thereafter, the court issued several directions with regard to catching of monkeys, on exploring methods to sterilise them and relocating them from the city to the wild.
In December last, SDMC moved an application seeking modification of the 2007 order on the ground that the corporation "lacked the expertise" and was ill-equipped to catch monkeys.
The corporation had claimed that according to a central government advisory, local bodies were advised not to carry out the exercise of catching monkeys and the task has been left to the respective state governments.
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