Stray dogs case: No respect for court's order; chief secretaries to appear physically, says Supreme Court

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday declined a plea by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta seeking exemption from physical appearance of Chief Secretaries of states and Union Territories in the stray dog menace case, saying "let them come personally."

To a request by Mehta to let the officers appear virtually, a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta, said that there was no respect for the order of the court, as it made it clear that the Chief Secretaries will have to appear physically before the court on November 3 in the stray dogs menace case.

"We are trying to solve the issues which should have been solved by the state governments. They show no respect for our order. When we require them to come and file compliance affidavit, they are just sleeping over it. Then alright, Let them come, we will deal with them. They must file compliance affidavits," the bench said.

Mehta again requested for a direction from the court for the Chief Secretaries to appear through the video conferencing mode in the case.

"Sorry, they have to come physically to the court," the Court added.

The development comes a day after the court had on Thursday refused to allow the plea of Bihar government to allow the state's Chief Secretary seeking personal appearance exemption in the stray dogs menace case on November 3.

On Friday, the court expressed its displeasure saying that it was very unfortunate that court is wasting time here trying to deal with the problems, which should have been addressed by the Municipal Corporation, by the state governments over the years.

"Parliament frames rules, no action is taken," the bench said.

The bench pointed out that the court asked the Chief Secretaries why no compliance affidavit been filed, but they were now seeking personal exemption.

Earlier on October 27, the Supreme Court directed the chief secretaries of all states and Union Territories, other than West Bengal and Telangana, to appear before it on November 3 to explain why no compliance affidavits have been filed yet in the stray dogs case.

The court had on August 22, reversed an earlier order directing authorities to remove all stray dogs to shelters and said they can be released to the same area from where they were captured after proper sterilisation and immunisation, except those infected with rabies or exhibiting aggressive behaviour. It barred the feeding of the dogs in public places.

The court then expanded the scope of the stray dogs case beyond the Delhi NCR and directed that all states and Union Territories be made parties in the matter, and instructed them to file compliance affidavit.