Mumbai: Bombay high court on Monday stayed proceedings against a man accused of killing and injuring birds and destroying their eggs. The court kept the petition for hearing on February 13 and asked the state government to file its reply in the meantime.

A division bench of Justice V.M. Kanade and Justice Nutan Sardesai was hearing a petition filed by Bandra resident Amit Dhutia, who requested the court to quash the FIR registered against him on May 13, 2015, by the police.

The FIR stated that Dhutia and two other persons including one Mari had trimmed branches of a tamarind tree in the compound of one Nectre Cooperative Society located in Bandra, leading to birds including 46 cattle egrets, two brown hoarsen, and three crows sustaining injuries and having their eggs broken. Dhutia in his petition said he was falsely implicated in the case.