Supreme Court warns states of heavy compensation for stray dog bites
Stray dog bites have lifelong impact, Supreme Court says, warning states of heavy compensation and fixing liability on dog feeders
The Supreme Court on Tuesday (January 13) stated that it would impose heavy compensation on States for every dog bite and related deaths for failing to make the requisite arrangements to address the issue, and also fix liability on those who feed stray dogs.
‘Dog bite effects are lifelong’
The remarks were made by the bench of Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and NV Anjaria during the hearing of the case on stray dogs. During the hearing, the bench further stated that the effect of dog bites is lifelong.
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“For every dog bite, for every death, we will be likely fixing heavy compensation for states for not making the requisite arrangements. And also liability to dog feeders. You take them to your house, keep them, why should they be allowed to roam around, biting, chasing? The effect of a dog bite is lifelong,” stated the top court as quoted by Bar and Bench.
‘Want to enforce statutory provision’
The bench further stated that it only wants to ensure that statutory provisions are properly implemented by the concerned authorities as it urged lawyers to allow it to take the matter forward.
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“We just want implementation of statutory provision. Allow us to do that. Allow us to work. Allow us to proceed further. The same things are coming again and again. This has become a public platform rather than a court proceeding,” stated the bench.
“Our request to all the lawyers is to allow us to take to task the union, the state authorities and other bodies to put what happened in 1957 into effect. Allow us to pass an order. We need to spend half a day with the States and Union. To see whether they have a plan of action or not. The problem has multiples a thousand times,” it added.
‘Dogs carrying virus’
The bench further stated that stray dogs are carriers of a certain kind of virus, adding that if they are attacked and eaten by tigers, the latter would definitely get infected by the virus and eventually die.
“These dogs, they carry a certain virus. If they attack animals, the tigers which attack these dogs and eat, the tiger is bound to be infected by distemper and it eventually dies. Read about Florida too. There is not a single endemic species left in Florida because of this,” stated the bench.