High Court Take Serious Note Of Stray Dog Menace

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on yesterday took serious note of the stray dog menace. They issued notices to the Chandigarh administration and governments of Punjab and Haryana, asking them to show their policies on compensation paid to victims of dog bite.

 The direction came during the hearing of a civil petition filed by Ram Kumar of Samana. He was seeking compensation of Rs. 10 lakh from Punjab and the Samana Municipal Council for his 12-year-old son Ankit’s death.

A Class V student, Ankit died on March 2014 due to a stray dog bite. Taking up the matter, the Bench of Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain also issued notice of motion to Haryana and its Director, Local Bodies.

“I propose to issue notice…to show cause in this case as to what policy they have framed for the purpose of compensating the persons who suffer injuries/death because of bite by the stray dogs and even on account of negligence of the doctors attending to such patients because in this case, the child had died not immediately after the dog bite but at the time when the fifth anti-rabies injection was administered to him,” Justice Jain said in the interim order.

Justice Jain directed the Registry to serve notices on the respondents through e-mail, as well as “dasti”.

The HC Bench has directed the Registry to request advocate generals of Punjab and Haryana and the Senior Standing Counsel of UT Chandigarh to personally appear on the next date of hearing on July 12. The notices have been issued to the secretary of Chandigarh’s Local Bodies department and the Commissioner of the Municipal Corporation besides the authorities in Punjab and Haryana.

During the course of hearing, Justice Jain referred to Section 109 of the Punjab Municipal Act, 1911, that “Enjoins upon every municipal council in Punjab to destroy, or cause to be destroyed, or confine, or cause to be confined for such period as the committee may direct, any dog or other animal suffering, or reasonably suspected to be suffering from rabies…”

Reference: The Tribune

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