- A three-judge Supreme Court bench will review a recent order on stray dogs in Delhi-NCR
- The initial order, issued by a two-judge bench, directed that all stray dogs be moved to shelter homes.
- The ruling faced backlash from activists and the public, who cited a lack of infrastructure and called the order unscientific.
GG News Bureau
New Delhi, 14th Aug: A day after Chief Justice of India BR Gavai assured a relook at a two-judge bench order, the Supreme Court has constituted a larger three-judge bench to take up the matter of relocating stray dogs in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR). The new bench, comprising Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta, and NV Anjaria, is scheduled to hear the case today.
The decision to review the order came after Advocate Nanita Sharma sought an urgent hearing, pointing out that two different benches of the apex court had issued conflicting rulings on the issue.
The initial order, passed on Monday by a bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan, had directed that all stray dogs in Delhi-NCR be rounded up and moved to shelters within eight weeks. The bench, which had taken suo motu cognizance of the issue after a rise in dog bite incidents, had stated, “We need to make streets absolutely free of stray dogs” and told officials to “forget the rules” for the time being.
The ruling was met with widespread criticism from animal activists, celebrities, and political leaders who argued that the order was impractical and unscientific. Former Union minister and animal activist Maneka Gandhi called the order “not doable” and “unscientific,” warning of a “vacuum effect” where dogs from other cities would move in. She also pointed out the significant financial and logistical challenges, estimating a cost of ₹15,000 crore to build shelters for Delhi’s estimated three lakh dogs.
The new bench will address the conflicting orders, including an earlier one by Justices Sanjay Karol and JK Maheshwari, which had stressed the implementation of the Animal Birth Control (ABC) Rules, 2023. These rules state that sterilised and vaccinated dogs should be returned to their respective localities and emphasized that the issue should be dealt with “compassion.”
