Animal specimen row: Petition in Delhi HC seeks CBSE guidelines’ amendment

The petitioner has also demanded that an FIR be registered against Sacred Heart School for keeping the specimens in its laboratory. The petitioner has made the Ministry of Environment and Forest; (CBSE); University Grant Commission; Chief Wild Life warden of UT; Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP),Chandigarh; Sacred Heart School and People for Animals as respondents in the petition.

The petitioner has contended that “CBSE and UGC are disobeying Section 17(d) of the PCA Act,that is binding on all academic institutions that they use the alternatives methods for teaching. The central government is duly bound to take all such measures as may be necessary to ensure that the animals are not subject to unnecessary pain or suffering during or after the performance on experiment”.

The petitioner has added that schools nowadays use alternatives like CDs,among others. “Nobody is authorised to hunt wild animals nor to keep their trophies in their custody,as according the Act. The CBSE guideline about animal specimens be quashed because there are so many alternatives and Pharmacy Council of India issued directions to all concerned to replace animals with alternative methods,” reads the petition.

The petitioner has also sought directions to the Chief Wild Life Warden and the Wild Life Crime Control Bureau,to investigate as to how many educational institutions still have scheduled wild animal specimens in their biological laboratories and from where they have been procured.