Calcutta High Court (Appellete Side)
13582W/2011 on 16 September, 2011
Author: Ashim Kumar Roy
Bench: Ashim Kumar Roy
1
W.P. 13582 (W) of 2011
01 16.09.11W.P. 13582 (W) of 2011 akd Mr. Aninda Mitra, Ld. Adv. Gen., Mr. Tapan Mukherjee.
... For the State.
Mr. S. K. Kapoor, Mr. Utpal Bose, Mr. P. K. Jhunjhunwala, Mr. Bhoopesh Sharma, Ms. Alpana Chowdhury.
... For the Times of India.
Heard the learned counsel for the parties.
In response to the notice issued by this Court, the Times of India has tendered an affidavit of the Editor, Mr. Sumit Sen and a supporting affidavit of two Journalists, Mr. Krishnendu Bandhopadhyay and Mr. Prithvijit Mitra, who were responsible for publishing the News Item in question, which was referred by Justice Tapen Sen to draw the attention of this Court to the state of affairs in the "Alipore Zoo". Let the same be taken on record.
Learned counsel appearing on behalf of Times of India submits that if copy of the affidavits filed on behalf of Zoological Garden, Alipore, Kolkata is made available, they may also like to file additional affidavit to make the things more clear.
Learned Advocate General states that copy of the affidavits would be made available to the Times of India and also seeks leave to file an affidavit-in- opposition to the affidavits filed on behalf of the Times of India.
2W.P. 13582 (W) of 2011 On going through the affidavits of the Editor and two Journalists of Times of India, prima facie, we find that the State authorities should pay attention to the state of affairs of the Zoo and particularly the welfare of the animals and we will highly appreciate, if the State gives an appropriate response in the matter. Further it would be proper if there is a High Power Committee at the State level to monitor the affairs of such Zoos and Botanical Gardens in the State to take care of and the welfare of the animals, who are held in captivity.
Learned Advocate General submits that the aforesaid observations of the Court may mean that the Zoo authority are not taking care of the animals and, therefore, the said observation may be deleted.
We make it clear that this Court has not arrived at a finding to this effect, but has expressed its concern and rightly so as we have also stated that these animals are held in captivity and so it is the sole responsibility of the Zoo authority to take care of their welfare; but for the said News Item published in the Times of India on 7th August, 2011, probably this matter would have not travelled to this Court. Therefore, we will highly appreciate, if the State would respond in the matter before being apprehensive of our order.
3W.P. 13582 (W) of 2011 The anxiety of the Court is to see that to what extent the State is serious about the matter considering their affidavits in response to the News Item, which appeared on 7th August, 2011, which specifically denied that the animals were made to starve because of the agitation called by the Union of the employee of the Zoo.
Affidavit-in-response be filed on 23rd September, 2011 Let the matter appear in the list on 23rd September, 2011.
Let photostat plain copy of this order duly countersigned by the Assistant Registrar (Court) be given to the learned counsel for the parties on usual undertaking.
(J.N.PATEL,CHIEF JUSTICE) (ASHIM KUMAR ROY, J.) 4 W.P. 13582 (W) of 2011