Just three days before India’s seven-phase general election, which returned the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance to power with a reduced majority, began on April 19, the Delhi High Court set aside the government’s March 12 circular prohibiting the import, breeding, and sale of 24 dog breeds deemed “dangerous for human life”.
On April 10, the Karnataka High Court had struck down the circular issued by a joint secretary in the Union ministry of fisheries, animal husbandry and dairying as beyond the central government’s powers under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, and the Animal Birth Control Rules.
The Delhi High Court was hearing a batch of petitions challenging the circular which asked the governments of states and Union territories to ensure that no licences were issued for the sale, breeding, and keeping of the listed breeds.
The government admitted in court that no opinion was sought from any private body before the circular was issued, and said it had no objection if the circular were to be set aside with a direction to issue a fresh one after eliciting the views of all stakeholders.
A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora then set aside the circular and directed the ministry to issue a public notice in a national newspaper as well as on its official website inviting written objections to the draft notification within two weeks.
“The objections filed in response to the advertisement/publication on the website shall be examined and decided by the respondents before issuing the final notification,” the court said. The justices also clarified that they had neither dealt with nor commented upon the judgment of the Karnataka High Court. “The rights and contentions of the parties are left open,” they said.
The bench also noted that it was not possible to give an “oral hearing to each and every dog owner”.
Counsel for the petitioners had argued that the circular was “perverse and illegal” and had been passed in violation of the undertaking given to the high court, as per its order of December 6 in a separate matter, that “due opportunity to all the stakeholders would be given before passing any order prohibiting import, breeding and selling of dogs dangerous for human life”.
