Overview
- States and Union Territories must capture dogs from educational campuses, medical facilities, public sports complexes, bus depots and railway stations, vaccinate and sterilise them, and relocate them to shelters without sending them back.
- Governments must identify all such premises within two weeks and secure them—preferably with fencing—within eight weeks, appoint nodal officers and ensure periodic inspections.
- The Court ordered joint drives to remove stray cattle and other animals from highways and expressways, directing NHAI and state agencies to shift them to shelters and file status reports in eight weeks.
- The Animal Welfare Board of India was made a party to the case, and dog-bite victims can be impleaded without the previously required deposits.
- The directions create a specific exception to the usual catch-neuter-vaccinate-release approach at high-footfall institutional sites, with the matter listed next for January 13, 2026.