New Delhi

The Supreme Court modified its August 11 order, which had directed the rounding up of all stray dogs in the Delhi-NCR and prohibited their release from dog shelters. The court now allows the release of stray dogs back to the same area after sterilisation and immunisation.

A three-judge bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta, and NV Anjaria ruled that stray dogs must be released after sterilisation and immunisation, except those infected with rabies or exhibiting aggressive behaviour.

The court said that infected stray dogs shall be sterilised and immunised, but under no circumstances shall they be released back into the streets, and as far as possible, they shall be kept in separate shelters or pounds after sterilisation and immunisation.

"The dogs that are picked up shall be sterilised, dewormed, vaccinated, and released back to the same area from where they were picked up," it said while modifying the August 11 order, which directed that stray dogs shall not be released.

The bench also restricted public feeding of stray dogs and directed the MCD to create dedicated feeding spaces in each municipal ward.

"Under no condition shall the feeding of stray dogs on the streets be permitted. Dedicated feeding spaces of stray dogs to be created. There have been instances due to such feeding instances," said the bench.

The top court ordered that the feeding area shall be identified keeping in view the population of stray dogs in the ward, and notice boards must be placed mentioning that stray dogs shall be fed only in such areas.

It further ordered that persons found feeding the dogs in contravention of its direction shall be liable to be proceeded with under the relevant framework.

The apex court further stated that municipal authorities shall create a dedicated helpline number for reporting violations of its directions on feeding of stray dogs, and appropriate action must be taken against the NGOs or individuals concerned in case of violation of its order.

"No individual or organisation shall cause hindrance to the effective implementation of the directions given above. In case, any public servant is obstructed, the violators will be liable to face prosecution for obstruction of discharge of public duty," ordered the bench.

It also said that desirous animal lovers shall be free to move an application to the concerned municipal authorities for the adoption of street dogs, upon which the identified selected dogs shall be tagged and given to him/her and it shall be the responsibility of the individual to ensure that the adopted dogs do not return to the streets.

It further ordered that each individual dog lover and each NGO who have approached the court must deposit a sum of Rs 25,000 and Rs 2 lakhs, respectively, with the apex court, failing which they shall not be allowed to appear in the matter any further.

The bench stated that the deposited amount shall be utilised for the creation of infrastructure and facilities for the stray dogs under the aegis of the respective municipal bodies.

The apex court on Friday also expanded the scope of the proceedings on the menace of stray dogs and impleaded all states and Union Territories as parties to the case. The August 11 order was limited to the Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) area only.

It issued a notice to the Secretaries of the Department of Animal Husbandry in all states and Union Territories, seeking their response on the framing of a national policy to deal with the problem.

The bench also directed its Registry to seek information from all High Courts where petitions are pending on the issue of stray dogs and ordered that all such matters will be transferred to the top court.

The three-judge bench order came on pleas seeking a stay of its August 11 order of a two-judge bench to remove all stray dogs from the localities in the Delhi-NCR region and put them in shelter homes.

On August 11, the top court ordered that all localities in Delhi, Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurugram and Faridabad should be made free of stray dogs and there should not be any compromise, and also made it clear that no captured animal will be released back on the streets.

In the detailed order it has clarified that its directive was not driven by "momentary impulse", rather, it came after thorough and careful deliberation, that the concerned authorities have consistently failed for over two decades to effectively address a serious issue that directly impacts public safety.

A bench of Justice JB Pardiwala R Madadev had said that it has decided to take the matter in its hands becasue of the systematic failure of the authorities over the past two decades to address an issue that strikes at the heart of public safety.

The bench had said that the directions given by it, as a court which functions for the welfare of the people, are both in the interest of humans as well as dogs and "this is not personal".

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It had noted that as per the data available on the website of the Press Information Bureau, there were 37,15,713 reported dog bites in the country, and in Delhi alone, there were 25,201 dog bite cases.