Woman drags neighbour to court over early rising rooster

Urges SHC to invoke public nuisance law

KARACHI:

A rooster announcing the dawn of the new day with its eternal cock-a-doodle-do call has become a ‘public nuisance’ in a tranquil upscale neighbourhood of Defence Housing Authority (DHA).

A woman has dragged her neighbours to court over an allegation that their rooster and chicken were disturbing the peace of the locality and were thus a public nuisance.

The Sindh High Court Chief Justice Aqeel Ahmad Abbasi heard the woman's plea against raising chicken at home. The complainant stated that besides the hackling hens, the early rising rooster was headache for the whole locality.

A two-member bench headed by Chief Justice Sindh remarked whether a complaint was made to the concerned institutions in this regard.

The petitioner said that the Cantonment Board Clifton is doing nothing about it. She said that the CBC officials said that there was no law against keeping chicken at home. Though she contended that there was noise in the whole area due to the chickens in the said house, the CBC officials said people keep parrots and pigeons

Chief Justice Aqeel Ahmad Abbasi remarked that chickens are very mischievous and make a lot of noise. The petitioner said that there is a public nuisance law which is being violated.

Chief Justice Aqeel Ahmad Abbasi said in his remarks that what should people do who keep chicken at home, should we ask them to slaughter all of their chicken. He recalled that in the olden days, naughty boys used to kidnap, slaughter and devour neighbourhood chicken.

The court adjourned the hearing till April 23 while asking the relevant institutions to respond on the next hearing.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 21^st, 2024.