Credit: DH File Photo
New Delhi: The Supreme Court is scheduled to pronounce its order on Friday on a plea seeking stay of the directions issued by a two-judge bench in a suo motu case on August 11, 2025 for shifting all stray dogs in Delhi NCR region to shelter homes at the earliest.
A bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and N V Anjaria would render its order at 10.30 am on August 22, 2025.
On August 14, the court reserved its order and asked all the intervenors who questioned the validity of the previous order to file an affidavit, saying there is human sufferings on the one side and animal lovers on the other.
The court also felt all this problem happened because of the inaction of the Municipal Corporation.
A fresh bench of three judges was constituted by Chief Justice of India B R Gavai after the previous order by a two-judge bench triggered strong reactions, including street protests.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who appeared for the Delhi government, said 37 lakh dog bites happened every year, an average of about 10,000 dog bites every day. About 20,000 rabies deaths happened every year, according to WHO statistics.
Strongly supporting the previous order, he contended that even sterilisation did not stop rabies.
"Even if the dogs are immunised, that won't stop them from mutilating children. Only four or five species of snakes are poisonous. But we don't keep them at homes. Nobody is saying kill dogs. They need to be separated. Kids are not able to play outside or go to school," he said.
Senior advocates Kapil Sibal, A M Singhvi, Sidharth Luthra, Siddharth Dave, Aman Lekhi, Colin Gonsalves and others, appearing for NGOs and others, sought stay of the August 11 order, saying there was not enough shelter homes to house stray dogs.
On August 11, a bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan had directed the Delhi government, and the municipal bodies across the national capital region to start at the earliest on removing the stray dogs from all the localities, finding the situation as extremely grim.
The court had said any individual or organisation coming in the way of removal of such stray dogs would face strict actions, including contempt proceedings.
"Immediate steps need to be taken to take care of the menace of dog bites leading to rabies," the bench had said.
In July, the Supreme Court stepped in to tackle menace of dog bite incidents, causing death by rabies by taking suo motu cognisance of a media report related to the untimely demise of a six-year-old girl child.
It had registered a case as 'In Re: City Hounded by Strays, Kids Pay Price'.