NEW DELHI: As animal rights activists submitted that stray dogs need not be removed from premises of public institutions like hospitals and colleges as they are not a threat to humans and that both can live peacefully, Supreme Court on Friday said the picture projected by them in favour of the canines is different from ground realities. Seeking rollback of SC’s order to make these premises free of strays, a lawyer told a bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and N V Anjaria that recently a picture showing a dog walking along with monks across the US went viral while, in another recent case, a dog came to the rescue of a toddler. The bench, however, said cases of dog bites give a different picture. “We will tell you the reality at the end of the arguments,” the bench said. Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for NGO ‘All Creatures Great and Small’, urged the court to involve domain experts, as was done in the Aravali case.Stray dogs: NGO asks SC to involve expertsThe obligation of the court to enforce rights is in the absence of legislation. The court will be building a new edifice if you enter into that territory,” Singhvi told the bench. “While our amicus is great, the concept of amici are basically law advisers. They are not domain experts. The court must have domain experts along with the amicus. In the recent Aravali judgment, the reconsideration was because that committee had 90% bureaucrats – generalists, not domain experts. Reconsideration was done because the domain experts had to come in. It will improve the quality of court orders,” Singhvi said. SC has said it would give a hearing to whoever files an application in the matter. Over the past three days, the hearing has spanned for six-and-half-hours and the court has heard the views of 20 individuals and NGOs. It will resume on Tuesday.
