Bombay High Court Issues Notice To Railway Authorities On Alleged Harassment Faced By Woman Advocate For Feeding Stray Dogs At Bandra Station

The Bombay High Court on Thursday issued notice to the Railway Protection Police (RPF) and also the Government Railway Police (GRP) on a petition filed by a woman advocate, who was allegedly harassed by the railway officers for feeding a handicap dog on the premises of Bandra railway station. 

A division bench of Justices Revati Mohite-Dere and Prithviraj Chavan has also ordered the authorities to preserve the CCTV footages of platform number 1 of the Bandra railway station, where the incident occurred on September 6.

"Issue notice, make it returnable on November 19. Having heard the counsel for the petitioner, we deem it appropriate to direct the authorities to preserve the CCTV footages of platform number 1 of Bandra Railway Station, of September 6. Parties to file affidavit-in-reply by the next date," the bench said in the order. 

According to the petitioner Amreen Shaikh (34), a lawyer by profession, she came across a handicap and severely sick and aged dog while she was getting out of the Bandra railway station on September 6. She being an animal activist, decided to feed the dog, stating it was her 'duty' to feed the dog. However, as soon as she served some eatables to the dog on a packet, a lady GRP officer 'aggressively' approached her and started shouting her for feeding the dog on railway premises. The advocate alleged that the lady GRP officer along with her female colleagues kept 'abusing' her and even made 'defamatory' comments against her profession.

"The rude and arrogant behaviour of the officers in the presence of the public has caused mental harassment and trauma to the petitioner and has also tarnished her reputation, who was doing her duty for the sake of humanity and animal welfare," the plea states.

Further, the plea states that the lady officers, then took the advocate to the Station Manager, who too pulled up her for feeding the stray. Thereafter, she was taken to the office of the Senior Officer of RPF, who shouted at Shaikh and even warned her of legal action, if she is found feeding animals on railway premises again. 

The petition, therefore, seeks action against all the concerned officers, who 'ill-treated' the advocate for only feeding a stray dog.