Shillong, Mar 12: The Meghalaya High Court has set a deadline of 60 days for the state government and the Shillong Municipal Board (SMB) to take a decision for permanent shelter of stray dogs.
In its order passed after hearing a PIL, the bench comprising Chief Justice IP Mukerji and Justice W Diengdoh said, “We direct that the State and the Municipal Board hold another meeting where the above problems are discussed and a proper decision taken for permanent placement of these stray dogs within 60 days or within such extended time if any, allowed by the State to keep these dogs in its shelter.”
The court also suggested more temporary accommodations to be set up by the Board to accommodate the street dogs, before identifying a permanent place for keeping them.
It also asked the government and SMB to jointly file a report in this regard.
In a meeting held on 12 February 2025, the government decided to allow SMB to use its animal shelter at Upper Shillong to keep the dogs for 60 days.
Accordingly, a temporary structure has been completed but it could accommodate only 20 dogs.
Observing that unless a permanent place is allocated to SMB the problem would recur after 60 days, the court said, “First of all, this point should have been raised by the Municipal Board at the meeting itself. No such point seems to have been raised. It is raised for the first time in Court.”
The court also noted that the Board in November last year had taken measures to capture street dogs, and vaccinate and sterilise them so that they did not increase in number. However, the SMB did not have a proper shelter to accommodate these dogs.
“The problem was not resolved because of the vicious nature of quite a few of these dogs. There were frequent incidents of dog attacks and bites on the road,” the court observed.
