The stray dog issue in Delhi-NCR has once again reached the Supreme Court. On Thursday, a petitioner urgently raised concerns after the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) issued a notice to start picking up dogs from Friday.

The bench, however, said it had already reserved its interim order in the matter. “We cannot intervene once the judgement is reserved,” the Court remarked, asking the petitioner to approach the concerned bench on Friday. Another related case on stray dogs is also listed for hearing tomorrow before a bench headed by Justice Vikram Nath.

Earlier on August 11, a bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan had issued strong directions to tackle the stray dog problem. The order instructed Delhi, Noida, and Gurugram authorities to capture, sterilise, vaccinate, and permanently relocate all stray dogs to shelters within six to eight weeks.

The Court also said that shelters should be built with CCTV monitoring and at least 5,000 stray dogs from vulnerable areas must be picked up within six weeks. Importantly, the Court stressed that "infants and children can move freely without fear of being bitten by stray dogs." It also made clear that none of the dogs should be released back once sterilised.

However, this ruling has drawn sharp criticism from animal rights groups and experts. They argue that removing dogs from their territories could disturb rabies control measures, cause chaos on the streets, and even violate Indian law and global best practices.

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