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SC bins plea on fund misuse in checking strays in city

Last Updated 14 January 2019, 08:47 IST

The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed an animal rights activist’s petition about the misuse of funds in tackling the menace of stray dogs and incidents of dog bites in Bengaluru.

A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul rejected the arguments put forth by Shekhar G Devasa and G R Mohan, the counsels for the petitioner, Geetha Misra.

“How is it possible when a special leave petition against the high court’s order is already pending before this court,” the bench asked the counsel and dismissed the petition.

Misra challenged the validity of the high court’s order of October 31, 2018, that declined to take any action as the matter is pending before the Supreme Court. She argued that the high court failed to take into account that the BBMP had spent Rs 24.41 crore on sterilising dogs and that there was no proper audit of the funds. She suspected the misuse of funds.

The counsels maintained that the top court had not fully stayed the directions issued by the high court on December 7, 2012.

The petitioner-activist contended that though 1,91,860 dogs have been sterilised since the order was issued in 2012, the BBMP itself admitted that cases of dog bite almost doubled from 17,783 in 2016 to 32,883 in 2018.

She pointed out several “discrepancies and violations” in the BBMP programme such as a lack of logbooks, cruelty to animals, unhygienic kennels and inadequate food.

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(Published 11 January 2019, 18:33 IST)

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