Karnataka High Court stays ban imposed on 23 ‘ferocious and dangerous’ dog breeds

The High Court of Karnataka on Tuesday stayed the operation of a circular issued by the Union government banning 23 breeds of ‘ferocious and danger’ dogs.

The High Court of Karnataka on Tuesday stayed the operation of a circular issued by the Union government banning 23 breeds of ‘ferocious and danger’ dogs.

However, the court clarified that the stay of the circular, issued on March 12 by the Animal Husbandry and Dairying Department of the Central government, would be limited only to Karnataka.

Justice M. Nagaprasanna passed the interim order on a petition filed by King Solomon David and Mardona Jones, both residents of Bengaluru. The High Court also directed the Central government to produce those documents, based on which the circular for banning the dog breeds was issued, for examining the prior consultation process.

The circular was issued based on the report of an expert committee, constituted under the chairmanship of the Animal Husbandry Commission comprising various stakeholder organisations and experts, which had identified certain dog breeds as ‘ferocious and dangerous to human life’. The circular had stated that all those who have reared these breeds of dogs as pets with them should sterilise the dogs for stopping further breeding of those breeds.

The Central government’s counsel told the court that the circular was issued based on a direction issued by the High Court of Delhi in a public interest litigation asking the department to consider the representation of the PIL petitioner for banning certain dog breeds.

However, counsel for the petitioners had contended that though circular refers to members of several stakeholder organisations being a part of the expert committee, the Kennel Club of India, the only certifying kennel club having various chapters all over the nation, was not consulted.

Noticing that the Delhi High Court’s order was “unequivocal in directing that all the stakeholders must be consulted before consideration of representation for banning dog breeds...”, Mr. Justice Nagaprasanna said that there is a need to examine the documents for the decision-making process to ascertain whether the Kennel Club of India was consulted, as consultation with all stakeholders was essential.