The cub was rescued by the forest department from a farmhouse here, where it was being exhibited at a birthday party. A case was subsequently registered under the Wildlife Protection Act.

Pleading on the behalf of Apollo Circus, which supplied the cub for the exhibition, counsel Kaushik Bhatt demanded that the animal be given to the circus as it might die without its mother, which was still with the circus.

He presented documents issued by senior forest officials of Maharashtra and Surat, who had issued the transit permits to the circus to transfer its animals, including the cub, from one city to another. This, he held, proved that the animal belonged to the circus and said it should, therefore, be returned to its rightful owners.

Forest department counsel B G Biniwale argued, in his turn, that since the animal had been confiscated by the department from a birthday party, that too without a transit permit, its exhibition was a crime under Section 39 of the Wildlife Protection Act.

He further pleaded that the animal was being given the best possible treatment and environment at Indroda Park, which was far better home for the animal than the circus.

Moreover, he added, the animal was five months old now and, according to wildlife theory, no longer an infant but a grown animal.

Thus the cub no longer required its mother's company, he said.

In its 10-page department, the court upheld the forest department's arguments, while it took note of written statements of two wildlife activists, Darayas Modhera and Snehal Bhatt, submitted in the case.