The Kerala High Court on Wednesday issued an urgent notice to Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi and others on a writ petition challenging the revocation of a permission for catching stray dogs on a directive from the Union Minister’s office.
Justice V. Chitambaresh issued the notice on a petition filed by Sebastian Mathew, alias O.M. Joy, president, Theruvunaya Unmoolana Sanghom, Muvattupuzha. According to him, he was an animal lover. In fact, he was on the lookout for an organisation which could take care of the stray dogs. Snehalaya for Animals, a Coimbatore-based organisation, had agreed to take care of 100 stray dogs. The petitioner then submitted an application before the Ayavana grama panchayat in Muvattupuzha for permission to catch and hand over 100 dogs to the organisation.
The panchayat granted the permission. However, the permission was cancelled on telephonic directives from the office of the Union Minister.
When the petition came up for hearing, T.R. Rajan, counsel for the petitioner, argued that there was no justification for cancelling the order. It could only be interfered by the authorities specified under the Kerala Panchayat Raj Act. The Union government did not have any authority to intervene in the issue. Nor the Union Ministry had the power to issue a directive to a panchayat.
