The Supreme Court is going to hear a suo motu case related to stray dogs on October 27. On August 22, the court had extended the scope of the stray dog case beyond the borders of Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) and directed that all states and union territories be made parties to the case.
According to the cause list uploaded on the Supreme Court website on October 27, the case will be heard by a three-member special bench of Justice Vikram Nath, Justice Sandeep Mehta and Justice NV Anjaria. Apart from the cognizance case itself, four separate petitions related to this issue are also listed for hearing.
Instructions banning abandoning of dogs postponed
The court, in its order passed on August 22, had said that all similar cases pending in high courts across the country will come to the Supreme Court for ‘final national policy or decision’ on the issue. The bench had said that the municipal authorities will continue to follow the August 11 instructions to pick up stray dogs from all areas of Delhi, Ghaziabad, Noida, Faridabad and Gurugram and immediately create shelters for them.
The court had said that the August 11 directive regarding the ban on releasing picked up stray dogs would be kept in abeyance for the time being. A two-judge bench of the court had issued several directions on August 11, including ordering Delhi-NCR authorities to immediately pick up stray dogs from all areas and shift them to shelter homes.
Hearing before special bench after widespread protests
The bench had passed this order on July 28 after taking suo motu cognizance of a media report on cases of rabies, especially among children, being bitten by stray dogs in the national capital. Following the August 11 order, there were widespread protests across the country. Later, the matter came up for hearing before a special bench of three judges.
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