HYDERABAD: Hyderabad: Telangana High Court on Tuesday transferred a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking directions to the police to register a criminal case and a court monitored probe in connection with the mass killing of 40 community dogs in and around Symbiosis International University on Hyderabad outskirts to the Supreme Court for an analogous hearing, along with similar matters pending before the supreme court.A division bench of Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice GM Mohiuddin passed the directions while hearing the PIL filed by V Rishihas Reddy, an advocate. The petitioner alleged that, at the instance of the Tahsildar, Nandigama Mandal, Rangareddy district, the Sarpanch, Modallaguda Gram Panchayat, and the authorities of the university, university officials trapped the dogs from inside and outside the university premises and killed them.During the hearing, when the bench referred to the Supreme Court’s Nov 2025 order on the stray dog menace and connected aspects, the petitioner’s counsel argued that the present case was not merely about dog bites but about illegal killing of dogs. The counsel sought interim protection to prevent further killings and ensure compliance with the Animal Birth Control Rules, 2023 and Supreme Court directions on stray dog management, including in institutional areas.When the bench pointed to a lack of substantiating evidence for the claims and said the material submitted in support of the statements were social media posts, the counsel informed the court that university students and staff informed him about the deaths and that gram panchayat officials confirmed the same.“ There is a clear air of suspicion and something grossly horrible has happened here. The university along with the officials have to come clean about that,” argued the counsel, seeking immediate registration of an FIR and a court monitored investigation.The petitioner also urged the court to appoint an independent inquiry commission, to be headed by a retired High Court judge, to investigate the chain of events leading to the deaths of the 40 dogs and to address the broader failure of the state to implement animal welfare legislation.Recording the submissions, the bench noted that though the petitioner’s counsel sought to distinguish the petition from the matters before the Supreme Court, the issues raised in the PIL fell within the “common issues relating to stray dogs” already before the Supreme Court and directed the Registry to transfer the PIL to the Supreme Court for an analogous hearing.
