SC alters its ‘harsh’ order, allows stray dogs’ release

NEW DELHI: Holding that the earlier prohibition on releasing stray dogs was “too harsh”, the Supreme Court on Friday modified its August 11 directions on the mass capture of stray dogs, clarifying that canines picked up by municipal authorities in Delhi and four adjoining districts, Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurugram and Faridabad, will be released in the same locality after sterilisation and immunisation, except for those suffering from rabies or displaying aggressive behaviour.

- Utkarsh Anand

The top court's clarification that community dogs must be picked up, sterilised and vaccinated, and then released — save for rabid or demonstrably aggressive animals — essentially reiterates the Animal Birth Control (ABC) Rules, 2023. Those rules, framed under Section 38 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, require local authorities to run ABC and anti-rabies programmes premised on catch-neuter-vaccinate-release.

Significantly, the court expanded the scope of the suo motu case that prompted the August 11 order to the entire country. It impleaded all states and Union territories, seeking reports from their animal husbandry departments and local bodies on ABC compliance. It also ordered the transfer of all similar petitions pending before high courts to itself “so that a national policy could be framed to deal with the issue.”

A three-judge bench, led by Justice Vikram Nath, noted that some of the mandates in the August 11 order by a bench of two judges were “impossible to comply with" given existing infrastructure as it underlined that the revised framework must be implemented in consonance with the Animal Birth Control (ABC) Rules, 2023.

While the intent behind the August 1l order was "salutary" in seeking to protect citizens from aggressive and rabid dogs, the bench, also comprising justices Sandeep Mehta and NV Anjaria, said it could not be enforced in disregard of the statutory framework under the ABC Rules.

"The direction given in the order dated 11th August, 2025, prohibiting the release of the treated and vaccinated dogs seems to be too harsh, in our opinion...A blanket direction to pick up all the strays and place them in dog shelters/pounds without evaluating the existing infrastructure may lead to a Catch-22 situation because such directions may be impossible to comply with," the bench held.