The Supreme Court bench of Justice JB Pardiwala and R. Mahadevan on Monday had ordered the rounding up of stray dogs from all parts of Delhi and the National Capital Region of Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurugram, and Faridabad, and moving them to shelters to be built by the respective municipal agencies.
The order which was posted on Wednesday, August 13, said any hindrance or obstruction that may be caused by any individual or organization in the smooth and effective implementation of the directions of the order (given below) will be viewed as contempt of court and that they shall take appropriate action in accordance with law.
“(i) Start picking up and rounding the stray dogs from all localities of Delhi, Ghaziabad, Noida, Faridabad, Gurugram as well as areas on the outskirts, and relocate these dogs into designated shelters / pounds.
(ii) The appropriate authorities of NCT of Delhi, Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurugram & Faridabad are directed to immediately create dog shelters/pounds and report to this Court the creation of such infrastructure all over the National Capital Region (NCR). A report in this regard shall be filed before this Court within a period of eight weeks.
(iii) In no circumstances, should these stray dogs after their relocation be once again released back onto the streets. In this regard proper records should be maintained by the concerned authorities regularly.
(iv) The stray dogs shall be captured, sterilized, dewormed and immunized as required by Animal Birth Control Rules, 2023 and as noted above, shall not be released back. The dog shelters/pounds should have sufficient personnel to sterilize, deworm and immunize stray dogs and also for looking after the stray dogs who would be detained.
(v) We further make it clear that both the exercise of rounding-up of stray dogs as-well as the creation of necessary infrastructure in the form of shelters / pounds for the relocation, sterilization, deworming and immunization, shall be undertaken simultaneously. We do not want to hear about even a semblance of lethargy from the concerned authorities on the pre-text of awaiting the creation of shelters / pounds, otherwise, we will proceed to take strict action against these authorities. All authorities are directed to immediately begin the picking up stray dogs and in the same breadth creation of appropriate and adequate shelter homes and pounds across the National Capital Region.”