Supreme Court Stray Dogs Hearing Live Updates: The Supreme Court on Friday stayed an earlier order to permanently relocate stray dogs from the streets to dog shelters in Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) amid widespread protests.
A three-judge special bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and N V Anjaria stayed the directive of a two-judge bench that had ordered authorities in Delhi-NCR to start picking up stray dogs from all localities “at the earliest” and relocate the canines to dog shelters.
The three-judge bench also banned feeding of stray dogs in public places and warned of appropriate action in case of violations.
The two-judge bench’s order had drawn criticisms from animal welfare groups, who argued that shelters are inadequate and ill-equipped and insisted that the Animal Birth Control (ABC) programme, which mandates sterilisation and vaccination before releasing dogs back to their original locations, is the only lawful and humane solution.