Supreme Court to pronounce verdict on plea challenging removal of stray dogs from streets of Delhi NCR

The Supreme Court is scheduled to pronounce on Friday (August 22, 2025), its ruling on a batch of interim pleas seeking a stay on its contentious August 11, 2025, suo motu directive requiring civic authorities in Delhi and four adjoining districts to capture all stray dogs and confine them in shelters within six to eight weeks.

While reserving the case for judgment, a Bench led by Justice Vikram Nath, and also comprising Justices Sandeep Mehta and N.V. Anjaria, had remarked that local civic authorities were failing in their duty to address the growing public health risks posed by stray dogs.

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On Thursday (August 21, 2025), a different Bench refused to urgently list a plea by an animal rights group, which contended that the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) had gone ahead with a notification to round up stray dogs even though the apex court had already reserved its judgment.

The suo motu case, initially heard by a Bench led by Justice J.B. Pardiwala, was later reassigned by Chief Justice of India B.R. Gavai to a three-judge Bench headed by Justice Vikram Nath. The reassignment followed an oral mentioning on August 13, 2025, by a lawyer who apprised the CJI of a May 9, 2024, order mandating compassionate treatment of stray canines. In a rare administrative move, the CJI withdrew the case from Justice Pardiwala’s Bench and reassigned it to the three-judge Bench led by Justice Nath. The larger Bench heard the matter at length on August 14, 2025, before reserving orders.

During the proceedings, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing on behalf of the Union Government, had said that most fatalities from dog bites and rabies involved children and urged the court to craft an immediate solution to what he described as an escalating public health crisis.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for an NGO which looks after dogs, had pressed for a stay on some of the directives in the August 11, 2025, order, contending that they contravened the Animal Birth Control (ABC) Rules, 2023, which prohibit relocation of strays from their original place of habitation.

In its August 11, 2025, order, Justices Pardiwala and Mahadevan directed the MCD and other civic authorities to round up all stray dogs within eight weeks and keep them in dedicated shelters, with no re-release onto the streets. Justice Pardiwala had said authorities should “at the earliest start picking up stray dogs from all localities, more particularly the vulnerable localities of the city as well as areas on the outskirts”. The authorities had also been directed to establish shelters with the capacity to house at least 5,000 strays within eight weeks.

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The Bench had further highlighted that Delhi recorded as many as 25,201 dog-bite cases in 2024 and said that its directions were being issued in the larger public interest. At the same time, the order had instructed authorities to ensure that canines in shelters are neither mistreated nor deprived of food and that vulnerable animals were housed separately with access to veterinary care.

However, the directives sparked widespread outrage among animal rights activists, public figures, and welfare organisations, who have argued that the region lacks sufficient facilities to accommodate an estimated eight lakh stray dogs. They have cautioned that the large-scale capture of so many animals could result in logistical chaos and lead to acts of cruelty.