The Centre has informed the Madras High Court of having destroyed crucial files related to a 2016 ban on import of dogs for commercial purposes despite three writ petitions having been filed in 2016 and 2017 challenging it and a notice having been ordered to the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry on July 12, 2016.
While setting aside the ban notification, Justice Anita Sumanth wrote: “Thus, this court is denied the benefit of the supporting material on the basis of which the impugned (under challenge) ban has been imposed. I am not inclined to assume the existence of such material, which is fundamental and critical to justify the impugned notification.”
It was when the writ petitions were listed for final hearing before the judge early this year, she sought the files containing comments from the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) and others before the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) imposed the ban on April 25, 2016. The judge wanted to peruse the files to ascertain if there was any justification behind the ban. However, Deputy Commissioner (Trade) responded on February 22 this year that the files had been weeded out and were untraceable.
