The Supreme Court on Thursday criticised local authorities over the stray dog menace in Delhi-NCR, saying the “whole problem” stems from their inaction. The court also held that all those who had filed interventions in the matter must “own responsibility” for the situation.Hearing a batch of pleas, the three-judge bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and NV Anjaria reserved its order on an interim prayer seeking a stay on the top court’s August 11 directive to remove stray dogs from the streets.Notablty, the Delhi government on Thursday told the Supreme Court that children are dying due to dog bites causing rabies, and the issue of stray dogs needs to be resolved and not to be contested.Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Delhi government, told a three-judge bench that there were over 37 lakh reported dog bites in an year in the country. “Nobody is an animal hater,” Mehta told the bench.Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for an NGO which looks after dogs, said the situation was “very serious” and the matter was needed to be argued in depth.Sibal sought a stay on some of the directions passed by the apex court on August 11, including the directions to the authorities in Delhi-NCR to start picking up stray dogs from all localities “at the earliest” and relocate the animals to dog shelters.On August 11, a two-judge bench of the apex court had directed the authorities to immediately create dog shelters or pounds and report to it about the creation of such infrastructure within eight weeks.It had said stray dogs would be detained in shelters and not be released on streets, colonies or public places.The apex court had passed a slew of directions on August 11 while hearing a suo motu case initiated on July 28 over stray dog bites leading to rabies, particularly among children, in the national capital.
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