When Mira Road resident and film-maker Partho Ghosh was fined Rs 1,000 in his maintenance bill for “feeding strays,” who lived outside his society, he refused to pay up unless “the society proves the charge was legal.”

Ghosh’s isn’t a case in isolation. A lot of societies’ managing committee members take it upon themselves to play law-enforcers,  act like the judiciary and impose fines randomly and arbitrarily. In the absence of any opposition, they also go on to collect the fines and spend it as ‘sundry’ accounts without offering any details too.

Firstly, it may be realised that feeding strays isn’t a crime or a civil wrong, in the first place. It’s littering that is capable of being fined and, only, by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. Now, this power cannot be delegated by the BMC as is evidenced by the order in which  the BMC was asked to pull out Clean-Up Marshalls off public road by High Court which ruled:

“You (BMC) cannot delegate powers of imposing fine to private persons. Only those persons having sovereign power conferred by the legislature or the Parliament can impose fine. Even the court cannot delegate these powers.”

Concurrently, no Cooperative Housing Society’s managing committee has the right to impose fines and / or levy any penalty in this regard. "Just fending for a street dog we've named Biscuit fetches so much acrimony and disgust among cooperative housing society members it's not funny," says South Mumbai's Third Pasta Lane Resident and dog-lover Ashok Shahani.

"Right from cooperative housing society secretaries to society chairmen, treasurers and watchmen, just about everyone has been targetting him for the heck of it leaving him hurt most of the time," he says. When, by law, dog-haters can't get their way, they resort to every rule out of the book to rid the dog. They try to hurt it by stamping in its tail, kicking it, throwing stones even attempting to maim it for life.

That, however, does not mean that the law is silent on the issue as affected parties may refer to Indian Penal Code (1860) - Section 428 & 429;  Bombay Police Act (1951) -  Section 73 to 78 / Sec 99 ; The Maharashtra Animal Preservation Act; The Maharashtra keeping & movement of cattle in Urban Areas (Control) Act (1976) and Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act (1960) ; Prevention of Cruelty to Draught & Pack Animals Rules (1965) and Wildlife Protection Act (1972); The Bombay Public Conveyance Act (1920) and The Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act (Bombay Act No. III of 1888).
 

gajanan@draftcraft.in