Stray dogs case: Live Updates from Supreme Court

A lady who is a bite victim addresses the Court: While I agree that proper implementation of ABC will reduce dog aggression and population. I was mauled by a community dog. I wanted to understand what made the dog bite me without any provocation. This dog was subjected to prolonged cruelty. Kicking, stoning etc. it was defensive aggression in response to fear. I suffered because of the action of somebody else. What manifests aggression in a community dog. Cruelty towards an otherwise friendly dog activates fear. Fear activates defensive aggression.

Percival Billimoria (reads from a judgement): Newspaper reports do not constitute evidence.

Court: You mean to argue that this petition should not have been registered?

Percival Billimoria: Cognisance is fine. My lords cannot only depend on newspaper reports. There are media reports that club facts with opinions. They by itself create an echo chamber. It’s like the algorithm. It will throw out only the things you want to believe. The more consensual approach is that society as a whole has to look at this and come up with a scientific way.

Percival Billimoria: A sterilisation capacity should be prescribed for each state. There are various scientific studies where the population of stray dogs has come down at 40%

Court: How have you arrived at that figure without there being a census by the way? Totally unrealistic arguments.

Percival Billimoria: Census has been done by scientists only in limited areas.

Percival Billimoria: I am setting up a road map to solve the problem. The first problem is there is no census.

Court: All this has been argued. Geo tagging, dashboard, tell us something new.

Percival Billimoria: The intensive implementation of birth control program is the only scientific solution to over population of dogs. ABC has not worked for 3 reasons. Under funded, under capacity, and corruption.

Court: Tell us something new Mr. Billimoria. This has already been argued.

Senior Advocate Percival Billimoria begins his submissions.

Percival Billimoria: It is nobody’s case that dogs should be on the streets. Dogs are on the streets because ABC has not been conducted in an effective manner.

Menaka Guruswamy: There is no answer there which allows for cruelty and culling.

Menaka Guruswamy ends her submissions.

Menaka Guruswamy: The ABC rules are not just about birth control. The legislature realises that article 51 which says we must have compassion for all living creatures. That is the society we want to be. Why do we oppose capital punishment? Because we believe that as a society it dehumanises us. When we are talking about removing species, we are dehumanising ourselves. We cannot be in short supply of compassion.

Menaka Guruswamy: Killing won’t dimish the numbers, sterilisation will. If the regulators did their job better, we would not be living in the catastrophe we are in now. Money should be given to the organisations working. The program centres are underutilising the funds that are set up.

Menaka Guruswamy points to parliamentary debates of 1957.

Court: Our request to all the lawyers is to allow us to take to task the union, the state authorities and other bodies to put what happened in 1957 into effect. Allow us to pass an order. We need to spend half a day with the States and Union. To see whether they have a plan of action or not. The problem has multiples a thousand times. We just want implementation of statutory provision. Allow us to do that. Allow us to work. Allow us to proceed further. The same things are coming again and again. This has become a public platform rather than a court proceeding. For every dog bite, for every death, we will be likely fixing heavy compensation for states for not making requisite arrangements. And also liability to dog feeders. You take them to your house, keep them, why should they be allowed to roam around, biting, chasing? The effect of a dog bite is lifelong.

Menaka Guruswamy: These deeply contentious and emotional issues pertaining to stray dogs and the conflict …

Court: Emotions seem to be only for the dogs.

Menaka Guruswamy: I am emotionally attached to human beings. It seems very elitist to make these arguments pertaining to one species. I recognise the issues that are before my lords. My lordships are confronted with a situation that the parliament has been confronted with since 1950. The ABC rules are a result of parliament applying its mind.

Senior Advocate Menaka Guruswamy begins her submissions.

Pinky Anand: Mandatory nodal officers should be there.

Court: Who should be made responsible when a 9 year old child is killed by dogs who are fed by a particular organisation? Should the organisation not be made liable for damages?

Pinky Anand: These incidents will happen. The way to control is not to take any one, two or ten incidents. Pet abandonment is another problem that your lordships can take care of.

Pinky Anand: If you take away dogs and they are not replaced back, more ferocious dogs will surface. When malaria was eradicated, dengue came back. The first recommendation is the adherence to ABC rules. Removal of dogs is ineffective as per the new AWBI rules. Removal of dogs from institutional premises is not scientific. And finally the rules that point out the obligations of the local authorities. The local authorities can collaborate with municipal authorities. This is mandatory under rule 10. Only 76 ABC centres have project recognition certificate.

Senior Advocate Pinky Anand begins her submissions.

Pinky Anand: I am advocating that animal and human conflict should not be seen as a conflict and a coexistence. I can’t close my eyes to the violence. The country’s philosophy, the NEP, UGC etc say that humans should peacefully exist with animals, animals should be treated with mercy.

Vikas Singh: Dog is not a keystone animal. It is not essential to the ecosystem. But their role in the ecosystem has to be appreciated.

Senior Advocate Vikas Singh: It should not be looked at a dog vs human issue but look at it like an animal vs human issue. There are 50k people dead due to snake bites last year, there are monkey bites etc too. Dogs are important for rodent control too. So your lordships have to balance the ecosystem.

Arvind Datar: If a dog is seemed to be attacking an endangered wildlife species it should be killed by the forest warden.

Arvind Datar ends his submissions.

Arvind Datar: ABC rules is only for birth control. Even if that is achieved the danger of attack by dogs is not addressed by the ABC rules. ABC rules will not apply to feral dogs.

Court: These dogs, they carry a certain virus. If they attack animals, the tigers which attack these dogs and eat, the tiger is bound to be infected by distemper and it eventually dies. Read about Florida too. There is not a single endemic species left in Florida because of this.

Arvind Datar: Therefore the order dated 7.11.2025 should be extended to airports. The impression is that once a street dog is placed in an area like that it gets some kind of special protection. The court should clear this. This needs to extends to public parks and courts too.

Court: Yes for courts, when a lawyer was bitten in Gujarat, and when the municipal corporation people went to capture the dogs, they were thrashed. By lawyers! By these so called dog lovers.

Arvind Datar: The premise within a hospital, railway station etc cannot be treated as an open space. The word access means only for the purpose of ingress and egress. I can go to the hospital, get my work done and come back.

Arvind Datar: The fact that a street dog lives in a gated campus still continues to be a street dog. Rule 7 doesn’t mean that a street dog living in a gated campus acquires a right to be in that gated campus forever.

Court: Suppose there is an RWA in a gated campus and 90% don’t desire dogs. But for the desire of 5% people they should continue there. What can be the solution to that?

Arvind Datar: All people are taking advantage of a gated campus. It is still a street dog. It just happens to be in a gated campus. What is the right of a street dog to remain in a gated campus?

Arvind Datar: The validity of the rules face a major difficulty. They have used the terms but have not defined it. In the ABC rules many terms are not defined. There is no definition of street dogs. It refers to classification of animals, it only covers dogs. One classification of dogs is pet animals. Two will cover non-pet animals i.e., street dogs, community owned Indian dogs and abandoned pedigree dogs. They have not been defined. They are homeless is the broad category. There non pet animals are those who are living on streets or on a gated campus.

Arvind Datar: As far as public institutions are concerned, people have access, for a particular purpose, I can’t go and stay there. And if a human being can’t stay there, an animal also can’t. No street dog has a right to relocated to that place because he had no right to be there at the first place. It will result in animal trespass.

Arvind Datar: The bone of contention is whether the dogs should be put back in the institutional areas or not. We keep referring to street dogs. But what is a ‘street’?

Arvind Datar points towards the definition of streets in ABC rules.

Arvind Datar: We are only concerned here about open space to which the public have access to. Whether institutional areas are open spaces where the public has access. The public have a right of passage and repassage on the street. Anything beyond that is trespass. Your lordships are justified in saying that the dogs should not be put back and I will say why.

Arvind Datar: My submission is that the 7th November order is fully justified and is statutorily supported. Secondly there is no need for any expert committee. Thirdly there is a batch of petitions challenging the ABC rules. The ABC rules are ultra vires more than 60 central and state laws. The last submission is the serious matter of feral dogs in wildlife areas. We had filed a WP in this court and pointed out that there are 9 critically endangered species in Ladakh, Arunachal, and Rajasthan. There are 55,000 feral dogs in Ladakh, and very few snow leopards are left.

Senior Advocate Arvind Datar begins his submissions.

Hearing starts