HC overturns CIDCO order to relocate 500 stray cattle to Pune from its land

The Bombay High Court has overturned an order by the City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) to relocate 500 stray cattle to Pune. The court stated that the cattle shelter run by Govansh Rakshan Samvardhan Sanstha was not for personal interest and that the animals should not be shifted until further notice. The court also highlighted the need for protection and care of the animals and clarified that the order does not grant any rights to the petitioner on the plot. The petitioner is prohibited from using the shelter for personal or commercial purposes.

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court recently overturned the City and Industrial Development Corporation’s (CIDCO) order asking a goshala owner in Panvel to relocate 500 stray cattle to Pune on grounds that the structure had encroached upon its plot.

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The division bench of chief justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and justice Arif S Doctor said, “At the moment, over 500 cattle are housed at the plot in question which is being run and managed by the petitioner Govansh Rakshan Samvardhan Sanstha. We do not see that the management of the cattle shelter by them is for any personal interest,” said the bench.

In its PIL, the charitable trust raised the issue of protection and shelter of the stray animals lodged in their goshala, especially when some of the animals were in precarious medical condition and needed to be paid immediate attention.

In this background, the court said it would not be appropriate to shift the cattle housed at Govardhan Goshala to Pune, where the CIDCO has made some arrangements for their shelter. “We, thus, direct that till the next date of listing, the animals and the stray cattle presently lodged with the petitioner will not be shifted.”

The non-profit body also submitted that the number of such stray animals being lodged in their shelter had been sent in their custody under various statutory enactments like the Maharashtra Animal Preservation Act, 1976 the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960 and the rules framed thereunder, and such animals cannot be permitted to be shifted without the leave of the statutory authorities concerned.

The HC found support for these observations from the fact that statutory authorities have sent a number of cattle and animals to the shelter.

Senior advocate GS Hegde, who represented CIDCO, pointed out that the petitioner body has encroached upon a CIDCO plot, from where the animal shelter is being run, and after an eviction notice was issued to them in March 2022, the trust had filed a writ petition in the high court. Hegde added that the petitioner body withdrew the petition on August 24 this year after another division bench of the high court granted them two months to shift the animals and vacate the CIDCO land.

advocate GS Hegde said in view of the August 24 order, the PIL filed by Govansh Rakshan Sanvardhan Sanstha was required to be rejected at the threshold, as they did not comply with the August 24 high court order.

The bench headed by the chief justice, however, found “sufficient public interest element” was involved in the matter and said that it needed “consideration.” The court noted that the animal shelter had been run at the place at least from 1999 in some or other form.

The bench also clarified that the order has been “only keeping in mind the need of protection and care of the stray animals and cattle so as to protect the human population” and “the order may not be understood to be a licence to the petitioner to have any kind of right on the plot, which is yet to be determined.”

The bench also specifically directed that petitioner bodies shall not in any circumstance use the gaushala for any personal or commercial purposes, whatsoever.