- By Priyanka Koul
- Mon, 27 Oct 2025 12:09 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
SC on Stray Dog: The Supreme Court on Monday directed the chief secretaries of states and Union Territories, other than West Bengal and Telangana, to appear before it on November 3 to explain why compliance affidavits were not filed in the stray dogs case.
Several stray dog assaults have been reported since the court's order. Last month, for example, a youngster was assaulted in Pune, Maharashtra, and days before that, another little girl was attacked, this time by a pack of 20 dogs in the Bhandara district.
The Supreme Court then requested explanations from all state and union territory governments. In response, it stated, "Yet no reply (has come) from state governments. Your country is being portrayed in a bad light internationally!" The top court said, "Two months granted... yet no response!"
"Don't you read newspapers? The order passed on August 22 was widely reported... all chief secretaries from all states to remain personally present in court and explain the delay."
A three-judge special bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and N V Anjaria noted that only the Municipal Corporation of Delhi and the states of West Bengal and Telangana have filed their compliance affidavits in pursuance to the apex court's August 22 order.
The bench slammed the other states and UTs for not filing the compliance affidavits, saying its August 22 contained everything.
"MCD has filed a reply, but the Delhi government has not?"
The only state that has implemented the top court's order is Rajasthan.
The bench was hearing a suo motu case relating to stray dogs.
The apex court had on August 22 expanded the scope of the stray dogs case beyond the confines of the Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) and directed that all states and Union Territories be made parties in the matter.
In its August 22 order, the top court had modified its earlier direction prohibiting the release of vaccinated stray dogs from pounds in Delhi-NCR, calling it "too harsh", and ordered the canines to be released post sterilisation and de-worming.
The court stated that stray dogs would be released to the neighbourhood from where they were picked up, but only after being sterilised and immunised. The exception was for animals that were determined to be rabies-infected or demonstrating hostile tendencies.
The court modified the order, stating that Animal Birth Control (ABC) rules must be respected for the time being.
The rules provide a set of guidelines to control the stray population and say that the dogs must be sent back to the same locality after sterilisation. The court has warned against obstructing such services.
The court had previously ordered the roundup of all stray dogs in the Delhi-NCR area, with the goal of making the streets free and safe. This came after assaults on men, women, and even children. However, due to opposition from animal activists, the court decided to reconsider the case and reserved its previous decision.