Ensure street dogs are not a nuisance, says Delhi HC

New Delhi: Feeding or sheltering stray dogs in the common area of a private property can cause nuisance, the Delhi high court has said, warning two South Delhi residents to ensure that the canines do not cause fear or discomfort to others.

A bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli told the two respondents that they cannot be permitted to keep stray dogs in the common driveway of a private property which was jointly owned by others, if their neighbours did not approve.

The court also said in a recent order that the two cannot feed the dogs or chain them in the driveway. The bench said it was the duty of the two “to ensure that the stray dogs do not cause any nuisance to the other residents within the same property and in the neighbourhood”.

The court noted that keeping stray dogs would “cause fear and discomfort” to others living or coming there “who are not accustomed to keeping pet dogs”.

“The nuisance caused by the conduct of respondent nos.3 and 4 (the two individual respondents) in sheltering the stray dogs in the common driveway in the present case is writ large from the photographs placed on record. “To a person, who is not accustomed to keeping pet dogs, it also causes fear and discomfort to walk into a property where stray dogs are kept either chained or let loose,” it said.

The bench said it “rues the lack of civic sense and concern exhibited” by the two towards their fellow inhabitants in their immediate neighbourhood.