SC's order on stray dogs: CJI Gavai to look into the issue
The Chief Justice of India today agreed to look into the issue of stray dogs amid the Supreme Court's recent order on their removal facing serious backlash.
A mentioning was made before CJI Gavai led bench wherein the counsel stated, "This is about community dogs, a bench of Justice Maheshwari had ordered against relocation..".
At the outset, the CJI said that orders were already passed on the issue by a bench recently. CJI went on to add that he would look into it.
Supreme Court on Monday had ordered the removal of all stray dogs from the Delhi NCR region and their consequent relocation to dog shelters/compounds dedicated for them. Notably a bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan has ordered that the strays shall not be released in the localities, even after sterilisation.
When the Court was informed about the possible intervention by animal rights activists by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, the bench observed that it would initiate contempt against those persons if they try to interfere with the implementation of the directions passed by it. "All these animal activists and so-called lovers, will they be able to bring back all those children who have fallen prey to rabies? Let's take a practical view of the matter", the court said.
In July the top court had taken suo-moto cognizance of a very disturbing and alarming Newspaper cutting reported by the `Times of India’ in its Delhi edition titled “City Hounded By Strays, Kids Pay Price”.
"Everyday, hundreds of dog bites are being reported in the city and the areas on the outskirts, leading to rabies and ultimately young infants, children and aged are falling prey to this dreadful disease. We are shocked to know that on an average 20,000 cases of dog bites are recorded in the country and out of which 2000 incidents happen in Delhi every day", the bench had noted.
As per the Newspaper report amidst the rising threat of stray dog in the national capital, a 6 year old girl by name Chavi Sharma fell prey to multiple dog bites leaving deep wounds on her left leg, arm and palm. Although the inhabitants of the locality complained for several times to the authorities concerned, yet none paid heed to the complaints of the people residing in the said locality. Also, a four year old boy Abhishek Rai was attacked by a pack of stray dogs on 23-7-2025 in Delhi’s Alipur area of Narela when the child was returning from his Anganwadi School. The dogs pounced at his face repeatedly injuring him until few bystanders rushed to his rescue.
Taking suo motu cognizance of the issue, court had issued notice to the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi. Also, Advocate Gaurav Agarwal, was directed to act as Amicus and assist the Court on this burning issue.
In a sharp oral observation, the Supreme Court in July had also questioned a Noida resident over the practice of feeding stray dogs in public spaces, asking, “Why don’t you feed them at home?” while expressing concern over the growing threat posed by stray dog attacks.
The petitioner, reportedly a resident of Noida, had approached the Court seeking protection of his right to feed strays. However, the bench observed that while compassion toward animals is laudable, it cannot come at the cost of endangering others, especially children and the elderly.
Following suit, the Rajasthan High Court has also directed the Municipal bodies to undertake a special drive to remove stray dogs and other animals from city roads while ensuring that minimum physical harm is caused to them.
"If an individual or a group of persons obstruct the employees of Municipalities from discharging their duties in removing the stray animals from the roads/colonies/public paths, then Municipal Officials/employees will be free to take appropriate action against them under the relevant Municipal Laws including lodging of the FIRs for obstructing public servants from performing their duties", a bench of Justices Kuldeep Mathur and Ravi Chirania has further ordered.