Delhi High Court order on stray dogs' right to food stayed by Supreme Court

The Supreme Court recently stayed an order passed by Delhi High Court which had given a slew of directions for the welfare of stray dogs after observing that they have the right to food [Humane Foundation for People and Animals v. Animal Welfare Board of India]..A Division Bench of Justice Vineet Saran and Justice Aniruddha Bose stayed the judgment that had said stray dogs must have access to food and water, and that Resident Welfare Associations are duty-bound to ensure the same. "Permission to file Special Leave Petition is granted. Issue notice returnable in six weeks. Meanwhile operation of the impugned order shall remain stayed," the top court said. .The High Court's ruling came in July 2021 in a suit filed to restrain certain individuals from feeding stray dogs. The dispute was resolved amicably, but the High Court was asked to lay down guidelines with respect to feeding of stray dogs.Justice JR Midha then ruled that community dogs (stray dogs) have the right to food and citizens have the right to feed community dogs. Hence, no person can restrict anybody from feeding dogs, until and unless it is causing harm or harassment to that other person, the single-judge had ruled."Community dogs (stray/street dogs) have the right to food and citizens have the right to feed community dogs....Any person having compassion for stray dogs can feed the dogs at their private entrance/porch/driveway of their house or any other place not shared with other residents. No person can restrict the other from feeding of dogs, until and unless it is causing harm or harassment to that other person," the High Court had stated..Appeal against the same was filed stating that the High Court's judgment was violative of a 2015 Supreme Court order directing courts not to pass any order relating to dogs and the Animal Birth Control Rules (ABC Rules) pertaining to dogs."SLP (C) 691/2009 together with several connected petitions (including WP(C) 319/2020 filed by the current petitioners) is currently pending final hearing by this Hon’ble Court and the court has specifically asked High Courts not to pass any order or judgments, relating to dogs, the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act and ABC Rules and related issues of their feeding in public places as a means to implement the ABC Rules," the plea stated. It was further contended that the petitioners before the Delhi High Court had intentionally and mischievously withheld information from the High Court and consequently, judgment of the High Court was based upon several blatantly misleading, irrelevant and factually incorrect statements and misinformation. .Last year, the Kerala High Court had initiated a suo motu case to examine Executive and Legislative inaction of the State Government on protection of animal rights.This suo motu case was renamed as In Re: Bruno in memory of Bruno, a Labrador dog brutally killed by three youths in the State..In 2020, the Allahabad High Court had directed the Nagar Nigam (municipality) to remove stray cattle and dogs from within the city. .The petitioners before the Supreme Court in the present appeal were represented by Senior Advocate Sanjay Sarin, Advocate-on-Record Nirnimesh Dubey, and advocates Ankur S Kulkarni, Susheel Joseph, Rohin Oza, Gagandeep Kaur, Pushkar Karni Sinha, Uditha Chakrovarti, Shashank Shukla, and Anant Prakash..Stray dogs have right to food; duty of every Resident Welfare Association to ensure stray dogs have access to food, water: Delhi High Court .[Read Order]