The Punjab and Haryana high court has directed the Chandigarh administration to restore the earlier visiting timings for animal lovers at the Society for Prevention for Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) facility in Sector 38 (West).
The high court bench of justice Raj Mohan Singh acted on the plea from one Abhishek Bhateja, who in 2021 had approached the court over functioning of the SPCA and change in visiting hours for animal lovers.
The court directed that the administration will take a final call on the representation of the animal lovers, who had raised questions over SPCA’s functioning, and till then, allow animal lovers and social organisations to take care of the animals as per the prevailing situation prior to the order through which the visiting timings were changed.
The court also said the animal lovers be given an opportunity of a hearing before the final order was passed.
In 2018, the visiting timings for animal lovers were changed to 10 am to 12 pm and 6 pm to 8 pm in summer. During winter, the visiting hours were fixed as 10 am to 12 pm and 5 pm to 7pm.
The animal lovers had argued that the new timings were less public friendly and had deprived animals in need of urgent treatment, thus hampering the welfare of animals and further leading to the failure of the main objective of setting up the animal welfare facility.
{{/usCountry}}The animal lovers had argued that the new timings were less public friendly and had deprived animals in need of urgent treatment, thus hampering the welfare of animals and further leading to the failure of the main objective of setting up the animal welfare facility.
{{/usCountry}}An independent report in 2020 had pointed to the poor functioning of the SCPA facility, the petition said. The SPCA had contested the claims made in the report.
The court disposed of the plea while restoring the earlier visiting hours and directed the administration to pass a fresh order on the issue in view of allegations on the state of affairs prevailing in the SPCA.