The Supreme Court ruled that the time limit for declaring possession of any wild animal or animal article under the Wild Life Stock Rules 2003 cannot be extended. According to Section 40 of the Wildlife(Protection) Act 1972, any person who has control, custody, or possession of any captive animal specified in Schedule I or Part II of Schedule II, or any animal article, shall make a declaration to the Chief Wild Life Warden or the authorised officer within thirty days of the commencement of this Act. Failure to do so will result in a criminal offence.
However, if the declaration is made within the extended time period that has been specified by the Central Government, Section 40A will grant immunity to the declarant. The Declaration of Wild Life Stock Rules, 2003 were put into effect after they were approved by the Central Government in 2003. Rule 4(2) of the aforementioned Rules stipulated that such a declaration needs to be made no later than 180 days after the day on which the rules came to be published, which was April 18, 2003. The Supreme Court of the United States has decided that the time period of 180 days that is specified in Rule 4(2) is required and cannot be increased.
An appeal was filed by a private party challenging the decision of the Kerala High Court, which refused to relax this time limit. The appeal was being heard by a bench consisting of Justices MR Shah and Manoj Misra, who were making the decision. Earlier, a sole judge of the High Court had issued an order directing the authorities to take into consideration the declaration that was made by the party after the allotted time limit had passed. On the other hand, the division bench overturned it after the State appealed the decision within the court.
The ruling of the division bench was upheld by the Supreme Court, which also decided not to hear the appeal.
