Stray dogs case: Supreme Court modifies order, allows dogs to be released after sterilisation

The Supreme Court has modified the stray dogs order and has allowed them to be released in the streets after sterilisation and immunisation. Dogs with rabies or aggressive behaviour will not be released, it said.  The court also prohibited the public feeding of stray dogs.

An earlier, smaller bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan had ruled that all localities in Delhi should be made “free of stray dogs”, prohibiting the re-release of stray dogs to the streets. It directed the Delhi government to remove all strays, stressing on no compromise. It had ordered the creation of dog shelters, equipped with staff for sterilisation and immunisation to be monitored by CCTV. The bench had ordered stray dogs to be shifted to far-off areas. However, this order met with widespread criticism and protests, before it was taken up by a larger bench of the court.

The larger, three-judge bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and NV Anjaria said on Friday: "Prohibition on release of strays shall be stayed. They shall be dewormed, vaccinated etc and sent back to the same area."

The court prohibited the public feeding of stray dogs and ordered the creation of dedicated feeding spaces. “There have been instances due to such feeding instances,” it observed, as per a report in Bar and Bench.

While the matter was earlier limited to Delhi-NCR area, it has expanded the scope of the proceedings by impleading all states and Union Territories as parties to the case.

Once the hearing is over, the court will formulate a national policy. All similar cases before various high courts have now been transferred to the apex court.