Mumbai : Horse carriages, popularly known as Victorias, would continue to serve joy rides to tourists in the city for some more time as the Bombay High Court on Friday granted further time to Maharashtra government to file an affidavit on complying with its earlier order of banning them.
A division bench of justices A S Oka and A K Menon was hearing a PIL filed by city-based NGO Animals and Birds Charitable Trust.
The government was to file a compliance report on rehabilitation scheme for horses, but did not file any affidavit, following which the judges provided more time to the government. However, the time frame has not been given to the authorities for reporting compliance.
The high court had directed the authorities to ensure that use of horse driven carriages and Victorias in Mumbai be completely stopped from June 2015 as as they were “illegal” and violated the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act..
The court had also directed the stables to close down by then, while directing the government to formulate a rehabilitation scheme for the horses by December 31, 2015. The government is yet to reply whether it has come out with such a scheme. (PTI)
