HC issues contempt notice to Nainital municipality EO in PIL on stray dogs and monkey ‘menace’ PIL
Wednesday, 04 OCTOBER 2023 | PNS | NAINITAL
The Uttarakhand High Court has found the Nainital municipality executive officer and the executing agency director at fault for not implementing its earlier directions while hearing on a public interest litigation regarding the conflict between humans and monkeys and stray dogs in Nainital. The division bench headed by chief justice Vipin Sanghi expressed its dissatisfaction at the Nainital municipality executive officer and the executing agency director being in contempt of its earlier orders and issued notices to them. They have been ordered to appear in the court personally on October 10.
During the hearing, the counsel representing the petitioner informed the court that the executive officer of the municipality and district administration had not acted as per the last orders of the court. The counsel said that the authorities are catching stray dogs, sterilising them and then releasing them whereas the court had ordered that a permanent shelter should be made for such dogs and that they should not be released in the open. However, the authorities caught the stray dogs and released them after sterilisation without the permission of the court, the petitioner’s counsel stated. Nainital resident Girish Chandra Kholiya had filed the public interest litigation contending that stray dog menace is escalating in Nainital town. He has stated that several people have been bitten by stray dogs in Nainital. He has claimed that more than 40,000 people were bitten by stray dogs across the State in the past few years. The population of stray dogs is increasing despite many of them being sterilised. The petitioner has appealed to the court for measures to put a check on the rising population of stray dogs and monkeys.
