NE LEGAL BUREAU
New Delhi, Feb 25
The Delhi High Court on Thursday asked the Central Zoo Authority (CZA) to clarify whether the elephant care centre in Gujarat, where they have housed two elephants belonging to the Golden Circus, was a recognised zoo or not.
A bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli asked the CZA to file an affidavit indicating whether the elephant care centre was a recognised zoo after the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) told the court that this aspect has not been specified by the authority.
The court was hearing PILs filed by PETA and FIAPO (Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organisations) for the protection of animals in circuses stranded across the country due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The court listed both matters for further hearing on August 10.
PETA India has claimed in its plea that due to the COVID-19 outbreak and resultant lockdown, circuses are finding it difficult to feed the animals which are at various stages of starvation.
It has sought a direction to the Centre to immediately notify the Performing Animals (Registration) Amendment Rules of 2018 which expressly prohibit training and exhibition of performing animals in circuses and “mobile entertainment facilities”.
FIAPO, which is a group of 100 organisations and works towards the protection of animal rights for over a decade, has challenged the constitutional validity of sections 21 to 27 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act so far as they permit exhibition and training of animals in relation to circus acts.
