Supreme Court Declines Urgent Hearing on Plea Against MCD’s Stray Dog Action
The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to give an urgent hearing to a plea challenging the Delhi Municipal Corporation’s (MCD) move to round up stray dogs in the capital. The matter was mentioned before Justices JK Maheshwari and Vijay Bishnoi, but the Bench declined to pass any order.
Earlier, on August 8, a Bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan had directed the MCD to remove stray dogs from all areas, especially sensitive localities, and to set up shelters with space for at least 5,000 dogs within eight weeks. The order also prohibited the re-release of dogs onto the streets and mandated sterilisation, vaccination, de-worming, CCTV monitoring, adequate staff, food, and medical care at shelters.
The Bench had also directed the creation of a helpline to report dog bites, capture of offending dogs within four hours of a complaint, and publication of monthly vaccination and treatment data. It warned that interference by activists would be treated as contempt of court.
The Court had observed that frequent dog bite incidents violated citizens’ rights under Articles 19(1)(d) and 21 of the Constitution, noting over 25,000 such cases in Delhi in 2024 and more than 3,000 in January 2025 alone. The ruling triggered strong protests from animal rights groups, who argued that the order was harsh.
Later, concerns about conflicting directions in multiple stray dog cases were raised before Chief Justice of India BR Gavai, who assured the matter would be streamlined before a three-judge Bench. Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta, and NV Anjaria heard the case and reserved their order, but did not stay the earlier directions. This led to fresh applications asking the Court to stop municipal action, which have now been denied urgent listing.
