Supreme Court's Fury On States Over Stray Dog Menace: 'India's Image Going Down'

The Supreme Court on Monday hit out at the the chief secretaries of states and Union Territories for not filing the compliance affidavits in the stray dogs case. "Incidents of dog bites are continuing. Such incidents have put India's image down in other countries," the Supreme Court bench said. The top court has now directed the chief secretaries of states and Union Territories, other than West Bengal and Telangana, to appear before it on November 3 to explain why compliance affidavits were not filed in the case.A three-judge special bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and N V Anjaria noted that only the Municipal Corporation of Delhi and states of West Bengal and Telangana have filed their compliance affidavits in pursuance

to the Supreme Court's August 22 order.The bench slammed the other states and UTs for not filing the compliance affidavits, saying its August 22 contained everything.The bench was hearing a suo motu case relating to stray dogs.The apex court had on August 22 expanded the scope of the stray dogs case beyond the confines of Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) and directed that all states and Union Territories be made parties in the matter.In its August 22 order, the top court had modified its earlier direction prohibiting the release of vaccinated stray dogs from pounds in Delhi-NCR, calling it "too harsh" and ordered the canines to be released post sterilisation and de-worming.