Bombay High Court on Friday held that municipal authorities, under the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act, can kill stray dogs if they are causing "nuisance".
Two judges out of three-member full bench in Friday's judgement held that Municipal Commissioner has the discretion to order killing of a stray dog if it is causing nuisance.
Judges clarified that this did not give the municipal authorities an unbridled power to kill all the strays. The discretion will have to be used judiciously.
The full-bench had taken up the matter following conflicting opinions of various judges in the past.
As to what nuisance meant, the court said there cannot be any hard and fast rule to determine that. A mere barking would not be nuisance enough, so as to warrant dog's killing, court has said in clear terms. In other words dog cannot be killed if barking is the only problem it is causing.
However an NGO, 'In Defence Of Animals', which is opposed to discretion granted to Commissioner, has decided to appeal in the Supreme Court, its lawyer Rahul Thakur said. High Court has stayed the judgement for six weeks. According to a survey conducted last year by the BMC there are 70,182 stray dogs in the city.
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