Delhi High Court
– Photo: ANI
Expansion
The Delhi High Court on Tuesday transferred to itself several petitions challenging the Centre’s ban on the sale and breeding of 23 breeds of ferocious dogs. A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan Singh and Justice Manmeet PS Arora said that these are very cruel dogs and they are chasing children. The court said that once the division bench takes up the case, all other similar petitions pending before single judges will also come before it and be heard together.
The court said that once the division bench takes over the case, all such cases should come here. In fact all single judges have to send their respective cases here. We will summon the case files here. You file a party application in another pending PIL and we will hear you. We cannot file so many PILs on this. The bench said and added that multiple petitions on the same issue will only create complications and delay the disposal of the case.
The Pet Lovers Association had challenged the Centre’s March 12 notification on the grounds that 23 dog breeds have been banned without consulting stakeholders or inviting objections and suggestions. On this, the bench said, ‘Every dog lover or dog owner or association cannot be heard as a party, it is impossible. This happened on our instructions. It cannot be that we direct the Central Government to conduct an investigation and then we say that the Central Government cannot pass such an order. We will look into it and investigate.
The division bench said it has already issued notice on a similar PIL and disposed of the present petition, thereby giving liberty to the petitioner organization to file an intervening or intervention application in that case. The bench also transferred to itself the petitions pending before single judges on the same issue and listed the matter for hearing on April 9.