Stray dogs row: Supreme Court to hear suo motu case on October 27

The Supreme Court will be hearing a suo motu case relating to stray dogs on 27 October, Monday.

The apex court had on 22 August expanded the scope of the stray dogs case beyond the confines of Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) and directed that all states and Union Territories be made parties in the matter.

As per the cause list of 27 October uploaded on the Supreme Court website, the matter will be heard by a three-judge special bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta, and N V Anjaria.

Four separate pleas related to the issue are also listed for hearing on the same day.

In its order passed on 22 August, the apex court had modified its earlier direction in which it had prohibited the release of vaccinated stray dogs from pounds in Delhi-NCR, calling it "too harsh" and ordered the canines to be released post sterilisation and de-worming.

While pronouncing the order, the bench had said that all similar matters pending in high courts across the country would come to the top court for a "final national policy or decision" on the issue.

The bench had earlier ordered municipal authorities to continue to comply with the 11 August directions to pick up stray dogs from all localities of Delhi, Ghaziabad, Noida, Faridabad, and Gurugram and immediately create dog shelters or pounds.

It had said the 11 August direction prohibiting the release of the picked up stray dogs shall be kept in abeyance for the time being.

"The dogs that are picked up shall be sterilised, dewormed, vaccinated, and released back to the same area from which they were picked up," the three-judge bench had said, as per PTI.

The apex court had also ordered that relocation should not apply to dogs infected with rabies or suspected to be infected with rabies and those displaying aggression.

It had directed municipal authorities to file an affidavit of compliance with complete statistics of resources like dog pounds, veterinarians, dog-catching personnel, specially modified vehicles and cages available as on date for the purpose of compliance of the Animal Birth Control (ABC) Rules.

The bench had impleaded all states and Union Territories in the matter while observing that application of ABC Rules was uniform all over India.

A two-judge bench of the apex court had on August 11 passed a slew of directions, including ordering the authorities in Delhi-NCR to start picking up stray dogs from all localities "at the earliest" and relocate the canines to dog shelters.

The bench had passed the order in a suo motu case initiated on 28 July over a media report on stray dog bites leading to rabies, particularly among children, in the national capital.

Widespread protests were reported across the country following the 11 August order.

Later, the matter came up for hearing before a three-judge special bench.

With PTI inputs