The Supreme Court is hearing the case concerning stray dogs in India. A Bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and NV Anjaria is hearing the matter.

The matter gained national attention last year after a Bench comprising Justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan directed Delhi municipal authorities to round up and shelter stray dogs, drawing protests from animal rights groups.

That order was later modified by the present three-judge bench. It mandated vaccination and release of sterilized dogs instead of permanent sheltering.

During the hearing on December 7, the Court flagged the increasing number of dog bite incidents in the country and called out the municipal authorities and other local bodies for their failure to implement the Animal Birth Control (ABC) rules.

During the last hearing of the matter on January 13, the Court lamented that while many lawyers argue for the welfare of dogs, the same enthusiasm is not reflected when it comes to arguing for the rights of human beings. The Court also asked a counsel appearing for a dog lover why they were not batting for adoption of orphaned children, but instead limiting themselves to promoting the adoption of stray dogs.

When the matter was heard on January 20, the Court said that it was serious about comments it made during hearings in the stray dogs case, including an earlier comment that dog feeders may be held liable for dog attacks.

Track this page for live updates from the hearing today.

Hearing begins.

Amicus Gaurav Agarwal submits his note.

Court: All state counsel come forward. Intervenors step back. Let us set the house in order first. It is very difficult to handle lawyers.

Gaurav Agarwal: For every state I have addressed 4 aspects. Functioning of ABC centres. Setting up of dog shelters, removal of dogs from institutional areas, and removal of cattle etc. Identification of stretches on highways prone to cattle ingress. And steps taken for removal.

Gaurav Agarwal: Andhra Pradesh (AP) has 39 ABC Centres. 1619 dogs can be sterilised each day. The state should audit existing facilities to see if they are fully utilised. A timeline should be given for setup of new ABC centres. 14000 institutions have been identified. 12000 institutions have established fencing. The state should take help of all concerned to identify strays in all institutional areas.

Gaurav Agarwal: Reason for ingress of cattle should be given.

Counsel for AP: We have filed certain details in the subsequent affidavit which I will share with the amicus.

Gaurav Agarwal: Coming to Assam, it has 3 municipal corporations. They have to start with that. ABC centres are inadequate. There should be a detailed action plan to increase ABC centres.

Gaurav Agarwal: Assam needs to take some more effective measures.

Court: As of day they don’t have a single dog centre?

Gaurav Agarwal: Only Dibrugarh does. They are saying they will set it up in 6 months but the details are missing from the affidavit as to how they plan to do it.

Gaurav Agarwal: There are 318 stadiums in Assam.

Court: This affidavit is silent on manpower and Human Resources.

Gaurav Agarwal: Yes.

Court: It’s a misunderstanding that we have mandated boundary walls.

Gaurav Agarwal: Yes. Even fencing, mesh can solve the problem they should do that.

Court: Assam also has a problem for Rhinos crossing the highway. I think they have made an elevated road.

Gaurav Agarwal: Yes. NHAI has to collaborate with the State government.

Counsel for Assam: Dog pounds etc. being less is a fact. But 6 months time I have taken. We have taken steps.

Court: The graver concern is regarding lack of manpower.

Counsel: 3 months time has been sought from the Court for this purpose.

Gaurav Agarwal: Assam’s affidavit runs into 1600 pages.

Court: Yet there is no information.

Gaurav Agarwal: Their first commitment is in urban local bodies with human population of 50,000 at least one dog pound will be constructed within 6 months.

Court: Look at the statistics of bites. It is astonishing. In 2024 there were 1.66 lakh bites. And in 2025 only in January there were 20,900. This is shocking.

Gaurav Agarwal: Lordships can give them (Assam) 6 months where they can take steps.

Gaurav Agarwal: Coming to Bihar, there are 34 ABC centres. 20,648 dogs have been sterilised. Daily capacity of sterilisation has not been mentioned. State should have done compete audit of ABC centres. If there are more than 6 lakh dogs in the state, sterilisation of 20,648 dogs is totally insufficient.

Gaurav Agarwal: 91 dogs are presently lodged in dog pounds. The affidavit does not indicate in how many institutional areas survey has been done to see if there are fences, boundary walls etc.

Court: They are all building castles in the air. None of the states have given data on how many bites. Except Assam.

Gaurav Agarwal: Pet dogs also bite sometimes.

Court: No matter how much you vaccinate your pet dog, it may still bite.

Counsel for Bihar: We are putting things into place. The result will be there. After the chief secretaries were called. Things have progressed.

Court: We will have to call them again.

Counsel: Within 3 months substantial improvement will be there.

Gaurav Agarwal reads affidavits submitted by Chhattisgarh, Goa

Gaurav Agarwal: There are dogs in beaches of Goa and Kerala. They cannot be released back.

Gaurav Court: They scavenge on leftovers. Fish carcasses and from shacks. it will ultimately affect their tourism. SCAORA made us have a first hand experience (referring to the recent SCAORA conference in Goa).

For Gujarat-

Court: There is no information on dog pounds at all.

Counsel for Gujarat: I have sought for information on that. We are in the process of creating more animal pounds and shelters. There are kennels where dogs are being kept. 60 crores budget is sanctioned for this year and 75 crore for next year. We are in the process.

Court: As you said they can’t be released in the same place like beaches. So they will have to be placed in good places where they can be taken care of. Permanent infrastructure is not needed. There are 30,40,100 dogs in institutional areas. We don’t need very large infrastructure.

Court (to Counsel for Haryana): Your affidavit is totally silent on what steps you have taken to remove dogs from institutional areas.

Counsel: I will take instructions.

Gaurav Agarwal: The audit to ascertain capacity etc cannot be found in any of these affidavits.

For Himachal Pradesh-

Gaurav Agarwal: Dog shelters need to be setup in bigger cities with more educational institutions etc.

For Jharkhand-

Court: We can’t believe this. 1.89 lakh dogs have been sterilised.

Counsel for Jharkhand: The figures have to be subtracted. 29000 were sterilised till November.

Court: 1.6 lakh dogs in 2 months? how many dogs can a caged vehicle catch in a day? Absolutely fudged up figures.

Gaurav Agarwal: There is no compliance on fencing, dog pounds etc.

Counsel: We will get appropriate instructions.

For Karnataka-

Court: This is the only state which has given number of stray dogs in institutions.

Gaurav Agarwal: Yes. Although they have been identified, they have not been picked up.

Court: They haven’t picked up a single stray from institutions.

Counsel for Karnataka: We will place on record.

Court: We will pass strong strictures against the government for all the states. If you would have said you don’t have information and need more time, we would understand. All the states who have put these vague averments in their affidavits, will get a proper dressing down. Total eye wash.

Court: Every educational institution is anyway supposed to be fenced and have boundary walls. If not it will be amenable to threats etc. whenever you set up a school they have to ensure there is a boundary wall.

Counsel for MP: Catching is not happening as of now, because we don’t have shelter homes. 475 dogs have been put in shelter homes.

Court: Capacity of about 300 still remains.

Counsel: We will file an additional affidavit.

For Maharashtra-

Counsel: We have created a dashboard. It will show real numbers of bites, sterilisations, vaccinations, veterinary centres etc. We are collecting all the data.

Court: It’s a good beginning. It may perhaps be emulated by other states also.

Odisha-

Court: They have mentioned that they have picked up significant number of dogs from institutions.

Gaurav Agarwal: They can do a complete audit. Places like Puri, Konark etc should have ABC centres. They can come up with a clear action plan.

West Bengal-

Counsel: In 2024, sterilisation has been 12,000. In 2025 until December it was 10,000.

Court: If you have 1-2 lakh in the city, if you vaccinate 10-12,000 a year, how will you bring the population under control?

Delhi-

ASG SD Sanjay: Chief secretary of Delhi has filed a detailed affidavit. NDMC is a small area. Rest is taken care by MCD.

Court: If they are sterilising 68,000 dogs in 8 months, it will be around 80,000 in a year. It will not be sufficient to reduce dog population.

Gaurav Agarwal: It should be doubled by this year.

Court: When you bring in a dog for microchipping, simultaneously it can be vaccinated and sterilised. Because it will have to be captured anyway for microchipping. They (MCD) have not said anything about population. The shelters may not be permanent facilities. For 6 months you can go very aggressive. Then gradually it can be phased out.

Gaurav Agarwal: Now that the state and the corporation are in synergy, they can probably set up some more centres etc.

Justice Sandeep Mehta: A few days back I had gone to a locality, at the start there was a board saying “iss gali mein kaatne waale kutte rehte hai” (this alley has dogs that bite) What can you do? You can’t walk. At least they were decent enough to put up that board.

Hearing ends.

Order: Arguments of the amicus are continuing. Put up tomorrow at 2pm as part-heard for further arguments.