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Stray dog shelter: Kerala HC chides LSGs for poor compliance, warns of contempt

Stray dog shelter: Kerala HC chides LSGs for poor compliance, warns of contempt

The High Court warned of contempt proceedings against local self-government institutions in Kerala for failing to set up stray dog shelters as directed by the Supreme Court. A High Court division bench stated that public opposition cannot be used as an excuse for noncompliance. According to an order issued on Thursday, while most local bodies formed stray dog management committees, compliance regarding other directives remained poor because many panchayats struggled to find suitable land or faced local protests over shelter projects. To avoid contempt action, the High Court ordered authorities to explore setting up common shelters shared by two or three panchayats. A top official from the local self-government department stated that the scarcity of suitable land is a major challenge for panchayats.

This is part of the Supreme Court stray dogs case: see what every state has done in our tracker.

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