The Delhi High Court has asked the South Delhi Municipal Corporation and the Delhi police for their response to a petition alleging inaction on the sealing and closure of illegal dairy farms.
Justice Subramonium Prasad gave the direction on a contempt petition claiming willful disobedience of a 2019 order by the High Court on the removal of illegal dairies. According to the petition, the inaction on the High Court order was creating a “complete public nuisance” and adversely impacting public health and safety.
The petitioners, Sunayana Sibal and Akshita Kukreja, said the High Court in September 2019 had directed the municipal corporations in Delhi to take necessary action against all illegal dairies farms. The dairies running without licences were ordered to be sealed and their electricity, water, and drainage connections were to be snapped.
The plea stated that when the petitioners visited Kotla Mubarakpur area in south Delhi last year, they discovered an entire cluster of sheds housing unlicensed dairies. They wrote to the authorities but no action was taken.
“This entire cluster was established via encroachment under the Baba Banda Singh Bahadur flyover in a non-designated area, and several animals were also found tethered with short ropes in neck-high sewage water,” the petition stated.
“To the present day, no concrete steps appear to have been taken by the Respondents/Contemnors to address the grave issue at hand. Evidently, the Judgement of this Court continues to be violated and the bovines of the unlicensed dairies are regularly confined in the sewage drain under the flyover at Kotla Mubarakpur,” it added.
The High Court will hear the case again on May 13.
