The Delhi High Court has questioned the Delhi government’s decision to claim ownership of an elephant, which was taken away by authorities from a private person in 2017 due to unsuitable standards for its care and maintenance, and has given the state a new approach. Was told to take matter.
In September last year, the court had ordered the government to move the animal to a facility managed by the Radha Krishna Temple Management Committee in Gujarat’s Jamnagar after hearing a petition filed by Farooq Khan, son of the original owner of the elephant named Moti.
In the case before the court, Khan had submitted that he wanted to move Moti, which is located at a center in Yamuna Nagar in Haryana, to another place with better facilities and reunite it with a family of four elephants. Wants to match – Gangaram, Dhonmati, Matti, and Chandni – who are at the Jamnagar facility.
However, the government in a judgment on October 26 last year held that the elephant had become its property and the petitioner had no right to file a petition.
Justice Najmi Waziri, in an order passed on December 24, called the dispute “untenable”, adding that the government had been directed to move Moti to Gujarat. “It would need to be examined as to how pearls can become Government property unless the petitioner is heard in accordance with the prescribed statutory procedure,” the court said.
The court further observed that the ownership of the mine cannot be taken over merely because the government had taken custody of the animal for better maintenance. “The transfer of ownership of pearls from the petitioner to the government would require hearing. Unless a reasonable order is passed, it cannot be automatically appropriated by the government. Forfeiture cannot result in forfeiture,” it said in the order listing the matter for hearing on February 11.
The Delhi government had in 2017 issued notices to the owners of six elephants asking them to surrender the animals on the ground that the area available for their habitat was not up to the required standards. Later, some elephants were shifted to Gujarat, Rajasthan and Haryana.
The court had in 2017 said that the chief wildlife warden will have to give adequate opportunity to the owners of these elephants to be heard before taking a decision on the ownership of these elephants.
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