Public safety or animal rights? Supreme Court verdict in stray dogs case today

The Supreme Court is set to pronounce its verdict on Tuesday in the high-profile stray dog management case that has triggered a nationwide debate over public safety, animal welfare and the implementation of the Animal Birth Control (ABC) Rules.

The judgment, to be delivered by a three-judge Bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and NV Anjaria, follows months of hearings involving state governments, municipal bodies, animal rights groups, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI). The Bench had reserved its verdict on January 29 after hearing extensive submissions from all stakeholders.

The case originated from a court-initiated proceeding launched last year after alarming reports of rising dog bite and rabies cases, particularly involving children. The issue quickly snowballed into a national controversy after an earlier two-judge bench of the Supreme Court directed authorities in Delhi-NCR to round up stray dogs and relocate them to shelters and pounds.

That August 2025 order, passed by Justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan, had instructed civic bodies to remove stray dogs from public spaces and ensure they were not released back onto the streets after sterilisation and vaccination. The court had also warned that any obstruction to the exercise by individuals or organisations would invite contempt proceedings.

The directive sparked widespread protests from animal welfare activists, NGOs and public figures, who argued that the order violated Rule 11(19) of the ABC Rules, 2023, which mandates that sterilised and immunised dogs be released back into the same locality from where they were picked up. Critics also contended that civic authorities lacked the infrastructure, manpower and shelters required to impound lakhs of stray dogs.

Responding to the backlash, the three-judge Bench later modified the earlier order and restored the ABC framework. In its revised directions issued in August 2025, the court allowed sterilised, vaccinated and dewormed dogs to be released back into their original territories, except those infected with rabies or displaying aggressive behaviour. Such dogs, the court said, must be housed separately in shelters or pounds and should not be returned to public spaces.

The Bench, however, simultaneously emphasised that public safety remained paramount. In November 2025, the Supreme Court directed states and the NHAI to remove stray dogs from institutional areas such as schools, colleges, hospitals, railway stations, bus depots and sports complexes. It also ordered authorities to fence educational and healthcare institutions and ensure that dogs picked up from such areas are not released back into the same premises.

During hearings earlier this year, the court expressed sharp dissatisfaction with several states over their failure to expand sterilisation capacity and create adequate animal birth control centres. At one stage, the Bench remarked that governments were “building castles in the air” instead of implementing concrete measures to curb the stray dog population and rabies threat.

The court also took note of alarming national figures related to dog bites. During proceedings, it was informed that India recorded nearly 37 lakh dog bite incidents in 2024, while some states continued to have inadequate sterilisation infrastructure despite mounting public health concerns.

The verdict is expected to settle key legal questions surrounding the balance between animal welfare protections under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act and the fundamental right to life and safety of citizens under Article 21 of the Constitution. It is also likely to shape a uniform nationwide policy on stray dog management, an issue that has increasingly become politically and socially contentious across urban India.

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