Supreme Court reserves order for staying direction for immediate shifting of Delh-NCR stray dogs to shelter homes

A three-judge bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and N V Anjaria is hearing the matter.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved its order on a plea seeking stay of the directions issued by a two-judge bench suo motu on August 11, 2025 for shifting all stray dogs in the Delhi-NCR region to shelter homes at the earliest.

A bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and N V Anjaria 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.

Turning to the counsel appearing for the MCD, the bench said all this is happening because of the inaction of the Municipal Corporation.

"The government does nothing. The local authorities do nothing. Local authorities are not doing what they should be doing. They should be here taking responsibility. Everyone who has come here to file intervention should take responsibility," the bench said.

A fresh bench of three judges constituted on Wednesday by Chief Justice of India B R Gavai took up the matter after the previous order by a two-judge bench triggered strong reactions, including street protests.

Appearing for the Delhi government, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said 37 lakh dog bite cases happen every year, at an average of about 10,000 dog bites every day. About 20,000 rabies deaths happened every year, according to WHO statistics.

He contended that even sterilisation does 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, Colin Gonsalves and others, appearing for NGOs and other parties, sought a stay of the August 11 order, saying there was not enough shelter homes to house stray dogs.

"There are the ABC (Animal Birth Control) rules. There is a Parliamentary legislation. That has to be complied with. How do you comply with? Who has to comply? The Municipal Corporation, what have they been doing over the years? Have they built shelter homes? Since they have not sterilised, dog numbers increased. Since they have no owners, the community is taking care of them. Where are the shelters? Where are the pounds? They will be culled," Sibal contended.

Singhvi said the apex court's order ignored previous directions against en masse picking up of stray dogs.

One counsel claimed there were about one million dogs in Delhi-NCR, while the shelter homes can accommodate only about a thousand.

On this, the court said these were anecdotal figures and there were no evidence on it.

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 action, 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'.