‘Fitting tribute’: Kerala HC renames case after dog beaten to death

A bench of Justices Jayasankaran Nambiar and P Gopinath said, “We feel that this would be a fitting tribute to the hapless dog that succumbed to acts of human cruelty, and disturbed by which incident we had initiated these proceedings.”

A video of the incident had been circulated on social media and based on a complaint, police had arrested two persons on Wednesday.

A PIL proceeding initiated by the court in the matter of executive and legislative inaction of the government in the matter of Protection of Animal Rights stemmed from a communication from Justice Jayasankaran Nambiar, who took notice of the incident on Thursday.

Subsequently, Justice C T Ravikumar initiated suo motu proceedings, stating that the “time has come to goad the state and its instrumentalities into taking affirmative action to safeguard the rights of animals and in a democratic republic as ours, the judiciary cannot afford to remain a passive spectator to executive and legislative inaction in the matter” and “institution of a suo motu PIL would be an ideal step”.

On Friday, the court said the state must now resort to affirmative action to alleviate misery of animals. “It is our belief that we will be able to identify other issues of concern and address them.”

The bench arraigned the Union Fisheries Ministry, the Animal Welfare Board of India, the Kerala Chief Secretary, the State Animal Husbandry Department Secretary, the Local Self Government Department Secretary, the Kerala State Animal Welfare Board, the Kerala Police chief and the Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University.

The court said the state government shall explore the possibility of promoting and holding animal adoption camps throughout Kerala.

It also appointed senior advocate S Ramesh Babu and T C Suresh Menon as amici curiae in the matter, which was posted to July 13.