A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Tuesday held that the clauses in bylaws of residents associations banning owners/occupiers of residential apartments from keeping pets of their choice or accessing the elevators and common facilities in apartment buildings are void and unenforceable in law.
The Bench comprising Justice A.K. Jayasankaran Nambiar and Justice Gopinath P. passed the order on a petition filed by the People for Animals challenging the bylaws of the associations that prohibit residents from keeping pets of their choice in their individual apartments.
The court, however, made it clear that the residents associations could stipulate reasonable conditions that must be adhered to by owners/residents of individual apartments while keeping pets. The Animal Welfare Board of India had issued a letter on February 26, 2015 containing the guidelines in this regard. They could be adopted by the residents associations.
The court added that time had indeed come to nudge our citizenry into respecting the claims of other living beings that too had rights in our shared ecosystem.
The court observed that compassion and empathy were the very essence of civilization and “we must strive to preserve these values as part of our culture”. “It was often an inadequate understanding of the subject that fuelled one’s intolerance to that ‘other’ and, hence, the State and its institutions of governance must take appropriate measures to inculcate a spirit of accommodation towards animals amongst our people, preferably by introducing animal awareness programmes at the school-level in the State.
