In its petition before the Supreme Court challenging the BMC’s order on killing of Mumbai’s stray dogs, the Centre has invoked Article 51A(g) of the constitution that says every citizen must “have compassion for living animals’’. It said Section 3 of the PCA Act gave effect to the mandate under Article 51A(g) and cast a duty on every person having charge of an animal to take all reasonable measures to ensure the well-being of such animals and prevent them from being inflicted with unnecessary pain or suffering. With the SC having already stayed the HC order, Tuesday’s appeal by the Animal Welfare Division of the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) was a mere formality. Attorney general G E Vahanvati apprised a bench of Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice P Sathasivam and Justice J M Panchal that the Centre’s plea needed to be tagged along with the pending appeals. The bench had no hesitation in ordering that this be done. On January 23, Vahanvati, who was then the solicitor general, had stood up along with noted senior advocates Fali S Nariman and T R Andhyarujina, who appeared for the NGOs, to convince the court that street dogs deserved a better deal. Animal activist-lawyer Raj Panjwani said the street dog population of Mumbai had already been reduced to 75,000 from 6 lakh in the last few years through drives carried out under the law and there was no need to put the poor animals to sleep.
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