Overview
- Supreme Court directs all civic bodies in Delhi-NCR to remove stray dogs from residential areas and house them in designated shelters within eight weeks under threat of contempt.
- The bench requires shelters capable of holding 5,000–6,000 dogs with sterilisation, rabies vaccination, CCTV monitoring and a helpline guaranteeing four-hour response times.
- Justices Pardiwala and Mahadevan branded existing Animal Birth Control rules “absurd” and ordered authorities to ignore return-to-territory protocols in the interest of public safety.
- Resident Welfare Associations praised the move as necessary after rising dog-bite and rabies cases, including a July incident that killed a six-year-old girl.
- Animal-welfare groups and rescue NGOs held protests at India Gate and vowed legal challenges, warning of severe infrastructure, funding and ethical hurdles.