Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (December 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, is an Act of the Parliament of India enacted in 1960 to prevent the infliction of unnecessary pain or suffering on animals and to amend the laws relating to the prevention of cruelty to animals. The act defines "animal" as 'any living creature other than a human being'.^[1][2][3]

Chapter II of the Act details the establishment of a governing body to promote and enforce the Act. As per the provisions of the law, in 1962, the government of India formed the Animal Welfare Board of India and appointed noted humanitarian and acclaimed dancer Rukmani Devi Arundale as steward.^[4]

Chapter III of the Act lists different forms of cruelty that are banned by the Act, including those related to work animals, captivity, ownership, abuse, mutilation or killing. Chapter IV of the Act deals with experimentation on animals. While it does not make it unlawful to perform experiments on animals for the advancement of knowledge, it does allow the Board to advise the Central Government to create a committee for the "purpose of controlling and supervising experiments on animals".^[3] The formed committee can then be authorized to inspect any institution or place that is suspected of violating the rules set out under chapter 17 of the Act, and subject to penalties detailed in section 20 upwards to the amount of 200 rps (approx. $2.46).^[3]

Chapter V outlines the restrictions, procedures for registration, offences to and exemptions for performing animals. It does not expressly prohibit any animal from exhibition or training, but allows the Central Government to deem an animal prohibited through the notification in the Official Gazette. However, in individual cases, a court or magistrate can prohibit a person from these activities, if it has proven that "that the training or exhibition of any performing animal has been accompanied by unnecessary pain or suffering". Penalties for offences of chapter V are a maximum of 500 rps (approx. $6.14) fine or up to three months imprisonment. Exemptions are made for the use of trained animals by the military and police and animals kept in zoos or on display for other educational and scientific purposes.^[3][5]

The act however makes a provision under heading [Chapter VI, Heading 28]: "Saving as respects manner of killing prescribed by religion: Nothing contained in this Act shall render it an offence to kill any animal in a manner required by the religion of any community." Chapter VI also includes regulations on the seizing of animals from owners, treatment and care of those seized animals, the limits of prosecution and the delegation of powers of the Central Government to enforce this Act.^[6]

Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).