Institute of Legal and Management Studies

The Supreme Court today rejected a plea made by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to exempt physical appearance of Chief Secretaries of States/UTs in the Stray Dogs matter.

A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta refused to allow the Chief Secretaries to appear virtually, expressing anguish at the non-compliance with its directions.

"No, let them come physically. It's very unfortunate that Court is wasting time here trying to deal with the problems, which should have been addressed by the Municipal Corporation, by the State governments over the years...Parliament frames rules, no action is taken. We require them to file compliance affidavit, they are sleeping over it! No respect for order of the Court! Let them come, we will deal with them. They have to physically come and explain why compliance affidavits were not filed! And then they must file compliance affidavits" said Justice Nath.

The SG submitted that the compliance affidavits have been filed, but the bench noted that the same must have been filed after the last date of hearing, as on that date, only 3 affidavits were before the Court.

It may be recalled that on October 27, the Court summoned Chief Secretaries of all States/Union Territories, except West Bengal and Telangana, for not filing affidavits regarding the steps taken by them to implement the Animal Birth Control Rules.

It was noted that only West Bengal, Telangana and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi had filed the compliance affidavits, in compliance with the Court's August 22 directions. Hence, the Court directed the Chief Secretaries of the defaulting States/UTs to appear next Monday to explain why compliance affidavits were not filed.

The Court also noted that there was no representation on behalf of the defaulting states during the hearing. Expressing dissatisfaction at the development, Justice Nath said that the Court had issued notices to all States/UTs and the order was also widely reported.

Case Title: IN RE : 'CITY HOUNDED BY STRAYS, KIDS PAY PRICE', SMW(C) No. 5/2025