New Delhi, Feb 13 (PTI) The Centre has informed the Delhi High Court that there was no legal framework for utilising service animals for the persons with disabilities and framing such guidelines required extensive consultations among stakeholders, including ministries.
A bench of Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela was informed on February 12 that in a meeting on February 4, gathering relevant information from associations specialising in animal training was emphasised upon.
Whether or not trained animals are safe to be allowed in public transport was also deliberated upon in the meeting held by the Centre’s Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) The department said training service animals was essential before the persons with disabilities took their assistance.
The department filed a status report in court after its meeting, which was held under the chairmanship of joint secretary (policy), DEPwD, and attended by officials from Department of Animal Husbandry, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and Ministry of Railways.
Centre’s standing counsel Rajesh Gogna, representing the department, said it was for the first time that service animals were going to be used for PwDs in India and urged the court to grant some more time for having consultations with different stakeholders.
“The chairperson noted that there is no legal framework for utilising the service animals for persons with disabilities. Therefore, framing guidelines from scratch on the matter will require extensive consultation with various ministries/departments and other stakeholders,” the department’s report said.
The department was stated to be in the process of collecting relevant information to place it before the committee’s next meeting.
The counsel for the petitioner NGO Dhananjay Sanjogta Foundation, Rahul Bajaj, who is blind, perused the status report and said it did not specify how much time it would take to frame the guidelines and that PwDs were not involved in the committee to deliberate on the issue.
The Centre’s counsel assured the court that PwDs would be included in the committee during the meetings.
On the issue of protecting vulnerable groups from attacks by stray animals, the court said the Delhi government hadn’t filed its status report yet and granted it four weeks.
The court was dealing with a batch of pleas over attacks by stray dogs and monkeys on citizens, including the persons with disabilities.
One of the petitions highlighted the lack of an enabling framework for the use of therapy or service animals by persons with disabilities.
The court had asked the DEPwD to file a report indicating feasible guidelines on the use of service animals for persons with disabilities.
It had directed the chief secretary to implement a slew of measures recommended by the heads of various departments to deal with the menace of stray dogs and monkeys in the national capital.
The high court had directed authorities to shift all the monkeys in the national capital to the Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary on priority and said strays couldn’t be allowed to take over the city. PTI SKV AMK
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.