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Supreme Court of India 2025-08-22 partly_allowed

Bench: 3 — Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta, N.V. Anjaria

In Brief

The Supreme Court addressed competing rights of stray dogs to exist and citizens' safety from rabid and aggressive street dogs in Delhi-NCR. While acknowledging the serious public health threat (over 37 lakh dog bites in India in 2024), the Court modified earlier blanket impounding orders. It allowed sterilised, vaccinated, dewormed dogs to be released to their original areas per statutory rules, but prohibited release of rabid or aggressively behaving dogs. The Court mandated designated feeding zones, municipal infrastructure assessments, and nationwide coordination through State/UT impleadment, treating stray dog management as a coordinated national health issue requiring balanced compliance with animal welfare law.</summary_100> <parameter name="citations">["SLP (Civil) No(s). 17623 of 2025", "Suo Moto Writ Petition (Civil) No. 5 of 2025"]

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