Kerla HC| Treesa Sunil | Social ThikanaSuo Motu PIL proceedings were initiated by the Kerala High Court as a result of the incident wherein, a black Labrador dog named Bruno was beaten to death and thrown into the sea by three youngsters. The case caught attention as the youth of the State took to social media expressing their dismay and protest in the killing of Bruno, which had enormous reach and support. As a result, Justice Jayasankaran Nambiar wrote a letter to the CJI to take cognizance of the matter and expressed in it that the Indian legislations for protection of animals were founded on the premise of superiority of human race.
This Writ Petition had been initiated so as to monitor the measures taken by the State on reported instances of cruelty to animals and to set up the rights and freedom recognized as inherent in all animals under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. The case was heard by the Division Bench of Justices Jayasankaran Nambiar and P Gopinath who directed the Registry to rename the writ in memory of the dog. The order directed the Animal Welfare Board of India(AWBI) to submit an action plan to sensitize the citizens on matters of animal cruelty within a month. Few other directions and suggestions to promote animal welfare by the State were also produced in the order given by the court.
"To begin with, we direct the Registry to rename this writ petition as In Re: Bruno [Suo Moto Public Interest Litigation Proceedings initiated by the High Court in the matter of executive and legislative inaction of the State Government in the matter of Protection of Animal Rights]. We feel that this would be a fitting tribute to the hapless dog that succumbed to acts of human cruelty, and disturbed by which incident we had initiated these proceedings,"
reads the order dated 2nd July 2021.