Supreme Court bench said that a dog can only be killed in accordance with law.
The Supreme Court on Thursday said an impression should not be created that human life has lesser value than that of a dog, and stressed that stray dogs can be killed only in accordance with the Animal Birth Control Rules.
"Let not an impression go out that human life is of lesser value than that of dogs. Human life is divine," the bench of Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Amitava Roy observed while restraining vigilante groups in Kerala from propagating and imparting training for killing of dogs.
Noting that even dogs are created by the divinity, the bench said that a dog can only be killed in accordance with law.
The bench said this as it was told that some individuals have made it their "mission" to kill street dogs.
Senior counsel Anand Grover named some of them and told the court that one of them, Jose, has been arrested seven times, but as the offence of killing dogs is bailable, the person gets out after paying a fine of Rs 50.
The court asked Jose to be present in the court on the next date of hearing on March 1, 2017, as Grover told the bench that this man is a petitioner before the apex court in the matter and does not comply with the directions of the court and violates the law with impunity.