The Delhi High Court on July 3, 2019, clarified that it is South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) responsibility to catch monkeys in the capital and relocate them.
A Bench of Chief Justice D.N. Patel and Justice C. Hari Shankar has dismissed the civic agency’s plea seeking modification of a 2007 direction to it to catch monkeys in the city and release them into the Ridge area.
The court dismissed the plea, noting that once the issue was decided by the court and disposed of in 2007, anyone aggrieved with the order should file an appeal or review and not an application seeking modification of the decision.
“We are not going to hear any of your (SDMC) reasons for inability, disability or deliberate non-compliance of the order,” the court said.
The 2007 directions were issued by the High Court on a PIL filed by advocate Meera Bhatia on behalf of the residents of New Friends Colony seeking an end to the simian menace.
Later, the petition was revived by Bhatia in 2012, alleging that the authorities, including the corporation and the Delhi government, have failed to ensure that the capital is free of the monkey menace even though a plan was in place to send them to Bhati mines area.
On the revived plea, the High Court issued further directions with regard to catching of monkeys, on exploring methods to sterilise them and relocating them from the city to the wild.
In December last year, the civic agency, through standing counsel Gaurang Kanth, had moved an application in the High Court seeking modification of the 2007 order on the grounds that the corporation “lacked the expertise” and was ill-equipped to catch monkeys.
(With inputs from TOI)
