PIL In Karnataka High Court Challenges BBMP's Tender Seeking Vaccination Of Stray Dogs, Implantation Of Microchips

The Karnataka High Court has issued notice to the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and others in regards to a Public Interest Litigation questioning the Request for Proposal (RFP) floated by the corporation calling for injecting combined vaccine and implanting microchips inside the bodies of stray dogs.

A vacation bench of Justice Sunil Dutt Yadav and Justice Venkatesh Naik T issued notice on the PIL filed by one Priyadarshaini S, who is an animal caregiver.

The petition states that BBMP initiated a combined vaccination plan for stray dogs microchips which could be scanned. Further it is claimed that in the context of Animal Birth Control (ABC) Rules, the BBMP's primary mandate is to control the population of dogs and sterilise/ vaccinate them. However, it is a matter of public knowledge especially to those residing in Bangalore who also at times have to suffer due to dog issues that BBMP has not yet been able to set up legally mandated ABC surgical centers in all the zones.

It is said “considering Vaccination and microchipping are additional procedures in the ABC /ARV program, dog will be caught multiple times which can then lead to dogs becoming aggressive and unwarranted efforts by the concerned agencies to catch dogs just to scan for microchip to find the vaccination status which will lead to more aggressive behaviour.”

Further, there has been no specific approval of the combined vaccine microchipping project obtained from Animal Welfare Board of India and such an invasive procedure at such a large scale is nowhere prevalent in the world. Dogs of Bangalore cannot be made some trial samples of combined vaccination and microchipping unless there has been a pilot study done regarding the same in controlled conditions.

It is also claimed that combined vaccinations Microchipping, infrastructure, monitoring etc- enumerated in the impugned RFP document are all specialised activities and all of them need focused implementation plans. Packaging and bundling them in one RFP, expecting same set of people to execute these tasks in a fair and efficient manner may not be possible without detailed discussion and planning with implementing AWBI recognized NGOs.

Seeking to quash the RFP the petition says that BBMP has not declared till date whether any project approval for the combined vaccine and microchipping issue has been taken from the State Government as the same does not seem to be the policy prevalent across the State of Karnataka.

Further, it is stated that the entire bid does not contain a single provision on the accountability of either the government or the private agency as to who shall be responsible for the adverse consequences which the dogs will have to face after the combined vaccine and microchipping.

The plea says “The innocent stray dogs ought to be treated with compassion by human beings. vaccinating and insertion of chips at a large scale without a detailed plan as also without any provision of law is dangerous. The adventures by respondents will likely cause increased human dog conflict and immense health problems to the dogs which are neither known to them nor to the petitioner, but in all likelihood, the same is likely to be adverse.”

Accordingly it seeks to quash and set aside the tender notifications and direct the respondents to follow the ABC rules while issuing any further tender notifications and specifically make a declaration in the tender notification that the said ABC rules have been adhered to strictly by the respondents.

Appearance: Advocates Nirbhay Kumar, Nishant Mandal, Subham Srivastwa, Gurudutt, Jitendra Thakur, Raman Raj Gangwar, Advocates for Petitioner.

Case Title: Priyadarshaini S AND BBMP & Others

Case No: WP 13024/2024