A new three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court headed by Justice Vikram Nath will hear the case related to stray dogs.
The Bench will also comprise Justices Sandeep Mehta and NV Anjaria .
The matter titled In Re: “City Hounded by Strays, Kids Pay Price” was earlier being heard by a bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan.
This Bench had also delivered a detailed order on August 11 directing the removal of all stray dogs from streets and public spaces in Delhi, NOIDA, Ghaziabad, Gurugram and Faridabad, their relocation to shelters, and a complete prohibition on releasing them back.
The Bench stated that the exercise must be prioritised and carried out without compromise.
When the matter was mentioned in the morning, a lawyer informed the Court that a Special Leave Petition is already pending against a Delhi High Court judgment concerning stray dogs. The lawyer also submitted that different benches of the Supreme Court have passed orders on the subject. These include a bench led by Justices J.K. Maheshwari and Sanjay Karol in one matter, and the bench of Justices Pardiwala and Mahadevan in the present suo motu proceedings. The overlapping nature of these matters and the possibility of conflicting directions was brought to the Court’s attention.
Another mention was again made late evening today stating they dogs were being hounded and captured even though the top court orders was not published.
The top Court has now directed that the present suo motu case, along with connected matters, be placed before the bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and N.V. Anjaria. The new bench will also hear all applications seeking a stay of the August 11 order.
On August 11, the bench of Justices Pardiwala and Mahadevan had termed the stray dog situation “extremely grim” and linked it to rising incidents of dog bites, particularly involving children, the elderly and the homeless. The bench had cited data showing 37,15,713 reported dog bites across the country in 2024, including 25,201 in Delhi. It had directed the creation of shelters across the National Capital Region within eight weeks, the capture and permanent detention of stray dogs in these shelters, humane care standards, and a helpline to respond to bite complaints within four hours.
The August 11 order also stated that any release of a captured stray dog back to the streets would invite strict action against the responsible officials. The directions were to be implemented simultaneously with sterilisation, deworming and immunisation of the dogs.
The newly assigned bench will now examine these directions alongside earlier judicial orders and the pending Special Leave Petition, and will decide on the applications seeking interim relief. The matter is now listed before the three-judge bench tomorrow for further proceedings.