HC stays order asking NDMC to remove stray dogs from Golf Club

The Delhi High Court today stayed for eight weeks its single judge order asking the NDMC to remove stray dogs from the premises of the Delhi Golf Club and relocate them elsewhere.
A bench, comprising Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath, asked the Animal Welfare Board of India to approach the Supreme Court, which is also seized of a similar matter, for clarification.
"Parties are directed to approach Supreme Court for any clarification. Meanwhile, the order of single judge is stayed for eight weeks," the bench said.
The bench, in view of the Supreme Court's recent order in which it had restrained courts to pass any order on the issue, disposed of the plea.

The apex court had on November 18 asked all states and union territories to follow central rules which will override.
On November 20, the high court had said it will pass certain directions on the issue after it wondered how to deal with the problem of stray dogs in public and private properties as the rules said that canines have to be relocated at the same place after sterilisation and immunisation.

The bench was hearing a plea filed by Animal Welfare Board of India challenging the order of a single judge asking NDMC to remove stray dogs from the premises of the Delhi Golf Club within a month and relocate them elsewhere but not in the same property after sterilisation.

Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw in his November 4 order had said the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) cannot insist on releasing the stray dogs back in the private property of the club where they were picked up from.
The Board had also told the court that the Supreme Court,
was seized of the matter and had recently said a "balance between compassion for animals and human lives" has to be struck.
Counsel for the board had said the apex court had allowed the elimination of only "irretrievably ill or mortally wounded" stray dogs in a "humane manner" and asked all states and union territories to go by the central rules on the issue.

He had submitted that the Act and the Rules only made a distinction between stray and pet dogs and not public and private premises.
The single judge order had come on a plea by the club, claiming that stray dogs entered its premises in search of food and were now permanently living there.
The club in its plea had told the court that the dogs were attacking, killing and eating peacocks, peahens and little chicks as well as the "sambhars and deers" present in the premises, besides occasionally attacking its members and children.
It had sought their removal from its premises "to ensure the safety of human beings, peacocks, peahen and their chicks".