The Delhi High Court said on Friday that it is concerned about the health of the city residents and that cattle cannot be allowed to consume toxic waste, which will prevent them from generating healthy milk.

The court took strong objection to a residential colony being run in a dairy area and noted that there is huge encroachment and illegal construction in dairy colonies.

"When cows start eating toxic waste, they are not going to generate healthy milk. We are only doing it for the next generation and not for us. If you are aggrieved by the MCD's action (demolition), go to the Appellate Tribunal for MCD.

"These people are not concerned with dairies. They are only concerned with their properties. These are all property brokers. This has nothing to do with the health of the citizens of the city. We are concerned with the health of the citizens of Delhi," a bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet P S Arora said.

The high court extended till August 23 the interim protection, granted on August 9, from demolition to certain individual dairy owners in Bhalswa who are willing to re-locate, subject to them making disclosures in an affidavit in relation to the extent of construction on their respective plots, number of cattle owned etc.

As the court refused to grant any protection to others, they sought the liberty to withdraw their impleadment applications and approach the Appellate Tribunal for MCD.

During the hearing, the MCD's counsel said they are not taking action against any dairy but against illegal and unauthorised constructions, including showrooms built on dairy land.

The court also observed that the next generation should not suffer from life-threatening diseases due to the consumption of degraded milk.

"Cows cannot be allowed to graze on toxic waste and we owe it to the next generation to develop infrastructure for dairies. Our focus is on the health of citizens rather than anything else," the bench said.

The court was hearing various applications filed by people claiming to be residents of the Bhalswa Dairy colony and were aggrieved by the authorities' direction of demolition or sealing, which would render them homeless.

The applications were filed in a pending petition relating to the poor condition of nine designated dairy colonies in Delhi -- Kakrola Dairy, Goela Dairy, Nangli Shakrawati Dairy, Jharoda Dairy, Bhalswa Dairy, Ghazipur Dairy, Shahbad Daulatpur Dairy, Madanpur Khadar Dairy and Masoodpur Dairy.

Earlier, the court had directed the shifting of the Bhalswa dairy colony in view of the "inability" of the statutory authorities, including the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and the city government, to take action to stop milch cattle from feeding on garbage from the sanitary landfills near the Bhalswa and Ghazipur dairies, as also the removal of all unauthorised constructions from all dairy colonies.

In its earlier order, the court had taken note of the "dingy" and "unhygienic" conditions of the dairy units, along with the existence of commercial construction there.

The MCD has identified 800 illegal structures in the area and plans to relocate more than 400 dairies, which are believed to house hundreds of animals, to the Ghogha dairy on the outskirts of Delhi.

In a public notice issued in early August, the civic body gave a three-day ultimatum to defaulters to vacate the encroached premises. It said enforcement action will be taken against all illegal and unauthorised constructions after the expiry of the deadline and a demolition drive will be carried out.

According to the MCD's land-use rules, a dairy plot can only be used for running cattle sheds and cannot be converted into a dwelling unit.

The civic body's action comes after the high court directed it to carry out a survey of the Bhalswa Dairy colony to identify misuse of dairy plots that have been converted into dwelling units and shops and are being misused for industrial purposes.

Perusing photographs, the court had noted that there were large-scale constructions and urbanisation in some of the dairy colonies, including salons, showrooms, gymnasiums and cyber cafes.

It had said the character of the colonies had ceased to be that of dairy colonies as commercial showrooms were operating there and superstructures as high as four-storeyed had come up for residential and commercial purposes.

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