An urgent appeal was made to the Supreme Court on Wednesday, following its recent directive on relocating stray dogs in the Delhi-NCR region, stating that the civic authorities have already started removing
community dogs, even though the official court order had not yet been uploaded.
Advocate Garima Sharma informed the bench of Chief Justice of India BR Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran that local authorities had already started to relocate dogs, even though the official Supreme Court order from August 11 had not yet been posted online, LiveLaw reported.
“In West Delhi, the strays were picked up at 12 o’clock”, she said as reported by the news outlet.
CJI Gavai noted that he would look into the matter.
Advocate Nanita Sharma mentioned before the bench that two benches of the apex court had passed different orders on the stray dogs issue on Monday.
In her argument, she cited an earlier judgment by Justices JK Maheshwari and Sanjay Karol opposed the “indiscriminate killing of canines.”
The lawyer added, “It says compassion for all living beings has to be there.”
Responding to this, the CJI said that another bench had passed the matter, but he “will look into this,” as per a Bar and Bench report.
Earlier today, another matter relating to stray dogs was mentioned before the CJI for urgent listing. The petition was filed by an organisation named Conference for Human Rights (India) in 2024, challenging a Delhi High Court’s order in its PIL seeking directions for sterilisation and vaccination of community dogs in Delhi as per the Animal Birth Control (Dogs) Rules, LiveLaw report said.
While hearing a suo motu case into rising dog-bite incidents in the national capital region, the apex court on Monday issued strong directions to the Delhi civic body to round up stray dogs, sterilise them, and move them permanently to shelters, noting that the order should be enforced strictly to make New Delhi and its adjoining National Capital Region (NCR) safe.
Calling the stray dog menace “extremely grim”, the top court ordered the authorities to permanently relocate all strays from streets to shelters “at the earliest”, and warned of strict action against anyone obstructing the drive.
The bench also instructed civic bodies to build shelter capacity for at least 5,000 dogs as an immediate step, hire staff for sterilisation and vaccination, install CCTV in shelters, create a helpline for bite reports, and consider a dedicated task force.
This ruling applies to Delhi, Noida, Gurugram, and Ghaziabad, and covers both sterilised and unsterilised animals.
