The Supreme Court of India declined a request for an expedited hearing on a plea challenging the Municipal Corporation of Delhi’s (MCD) directive to round up stray dogs in the capital. The plea was presented before Justices J.K. Maheshwari and Vijay Bishnoi, who dismissed it and issued no interim orders.
This dispute centers on a suo motu directive issued on August 11 by a bench comprising Justices J.B. Pardiwala and R. Mahadevan. The order mandated the removal of stray dogs from all areas of Delhi-NCR, giving priority to vulnerable localities. Authorities were directed to establish shelters accommodating at least 5,000 dogs within eight weeks.
Additional provisions required that these dogs must be sterilized, vaccinated, de-wormed, and kept in facilities equipped with CCTV, adequate staff, food, and medical care.
The dogs were not to be released back into the streets. A dedicated helpline was to be set up within a week for reporting dog bites, complaints were to be addressed within four hours, and rabies vaccination and treatment data were to be published monthly. Any obstruction by animal activists was warned to attract contempt of court proceedings.
This order was a response to the alarming rise in dog-bite incidents, which the Court framed as a violation of fundamental rights under Articles 19(1)(d) (freedom of movement) and 21 (right to life and personal liberty). Notably, over 25,000 dog-bite cases were recorded in Delhi in 2024, with more than 3,000 reported in January 2025 alone
Following criticism from animal welfare groups and concerns over possible conflicts between concurrent hearings, Chief Justice B.R. Gavai consolidated the case before a new three-judge bench, led by Justice Vikram Nath, to reconsider the matter. That bench has since reserved its order, but has not yet issued any stay on the August 11 directives