Four Legs Good, Two Legs Bad

How a dog's life compares to a refugee's life in India

- Saiyyad Mohammad Nizamuddin Pasha IS A DELHI-BASED LAWYER

THE Supreme Court on August 11, 2025, passed an order in a suo moto petition (meaning a petition where the court itself took up an issue of pressing public concern without there being a petitioner before it) directing all stray dogs in the National Capital Territory, NOIDA, Gurugram and Faridabad to be picked up by the municipal authorities concerned and moved to shelters/pounds to be created by the municipal authorities for housing and care of these dogs. The order was met with a nationwide public outcry and an unprecedented response by the Supreme Court.

As I watch colleagues and friends break down at the treatment being contemplated for their canine friends, witness them join protest marches and vigils against this perceived injustice, and read reports where the order has been variously described as cruel or inhuman, I have only one observation to make. Whatever else this order may be, it is not inhuman. Inhuman would imply either that no human would perpetrate such cruelty, or perhaps that such treatment could never be meted out to a human being in a just society. Both of these are untrue.

Let us just compare the treatment meted out to refugees in our country with what was briefly contemplated, just contemplated, for stray dogs, and we will very quickly realise that stray dogs have far better protection under our laws and in our society than people escaping genocide in their own country and seeking shelter in ours.

THIS IS THE WARPED WORLD WE LIVE IN, WHERE MERCY AND COMPASSION ARE SELECTIVE, AND EXTEND TO STRAY DOGS BEFORE HUMAN BEINGS SEEKING REFUGE. THE MESSAGE IS CLEAR, 'DOGS ARE ALLOWED, BUT REFUGEES ARE NOT'