The animals need to be given Fundamental Right to Life!

This Article is written by Ayush Chandra (A 5th-year law student of Amity University, Lucknow Campus and Founder of Legalonus)

Introduction

In the case of Animal Welfare Board of India v  A Nagaraja and other court held that Article 51A(g) of the Indian Constitution is the ‘magna Carta of Animals Rights’ and stated that every species has a right to life and security, subject to the law of the land. Article 21 of the constitution which provides a guarding shelter to human life also protects all lives, the word life has been used under this article and life under article 21 includes all the forms of lives including animal life which are necessary for human living.

In accordance with the ruling, all animals have the right to live in the same way as a human does but the need of framing IPC speaks that human does not follow the importance of the life of other human beings thus IPC makes the liability of such acts which are non recognized by law as an ordinary act whereas when we talk about animals the conditions are more dangerous and this condition should also be given due consideration.

It is the duty of every human to raise the voice against the act of brutality, cruelty and killing of animals such as dogs cats cows etc on roads, streets, homes, etc

According to the Federation of Indian animal protection organization and all creatures great and small report, between 2010 to 2020 a total of 4,93,910 animals were involved in various incidents.

Some Laws

Such acts of non-human should be penalized with a punishment of up to seven years. The acts of the animal welfare Act 2011 promote animal protection, according to section 4 of the act, there should be an animal welfare board of India, it shall be established by the central government which needs to work on

1. protection of animal welfare
2. to prevent pain, suffering, killing etc on animals
3. to prevent unnecessary killings, and
4. to provide for their welfare such rules and regulations.

According to Section 28 of the act, if any person found experimenting on animals without permission shall be punished with the fines which shall not be less than 20,000 and extend to 50,000 or one-year imprisonment which may extend to three years, whereas under section 429 of Indian Penal Code mischief by killing the animal of any value or any animal of value 50 rupees shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term of five years or with fine or both.

Need of Amendment

Despite the fact that we need different laws in different areas of society, the protection of animals should also be given consideration. Presently these bills have already been given consideration to some amendments, but the animal protection laws are not on the list.

1. CONGRESS RAJYA Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh on Friday asked Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to ensure that the Biological Diversity (Amendment) Bill, 2021 referred to the Standing Committee on Environment rather than a Select Committee,
2. Cost and Works Accountants and the Company Secretaries (Amendment) Bill, 2021. The bill seeks to amend the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949, the Cost and Works Accountants Act, 1959 and the Company Secretaries Act, 1980,
3. Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Arjun Ram Meghwal requested the Chair to take up the Surrogacy Bill before initiating a member discussion on Supplementary Demands for “Very Grants. The House then approved the amendments made by Rajya Sabha to the Agrawa Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2019,
4. The National Anti-Doping Bill, 2021, seeks to give the National Anti-Doping Agency powers of “investigation, levying sanctions for Anti-Doping Rule Violations, the disciplinary procedures to be adopted and the powers of inspection, sample collection and sharing and free flow of information.” and many more.

Moreover, The animal welfare act 2011 was presented in 2011 to replace the 1960 law but could not make much importance in the eyes of Parliament and the 261st report of the Law Commission had laid the importance to creating strict laws for animal protection but till now, nothing has been done.

Conclusion

Every mother and father wants their children to be risk-free of any act which makes their children cry in the same way as humans we are the mother and father of each and every animal who are facing such non-human acts done by the person with a black heart.

Government should also make provisions for the animals which will empower the person to create fear in the society for every act of cruelty against animals.