The Supreme Court on Tuesday
ruled that rabid, ill, and demonstrably dangerous stray dogs could be
euthanised by officials to contain the threat they pose to human life.
A three-judge bench of Justices
Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta, and NV Anjaria said that civic authorities may go
ahead with the euthanasia of such dogs in areas where their population had
reached alarming proportions and where frequent dog bites or aggressive attacks
posed a continuing threat to public safety.
The euthanasia of these dogs,
the bench said, should be carried out after a comprehensive assessment by
veterinary experts and in accordance with the provisions of the Prevention of
Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, the Animal Birth Control Rules, 2023, and other
applicable statutory protocols.
Last
year in July, the apex court had initiated suo motu hearings in the case over
media reports on stray dog bites leading to diseases such as rabies in
children. Later in August, the apex court passed a slew of directions,
including ordering the rounding up and relocation of all stray dogs from Delhi,
Noida, Ghaziabad, and Gurugram to designated dog shelters.
Terming
the situation “extremely grim”, a two-judge bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and
R Mahadevan, who were hearing the case then, had said that any individual or
organisation that tried to obstruct the picking up of these stray dogs would be
held in contempt of court.
In
its judgment on Tuesday, the three-judge bench dismissed all pleas seeking
recall of the August 2025 order and said that the right to live with dignity
encompasses a human being’s right to move freely without the threat of harm
from dog-bite attacks.
“The
court cannot remain oblivious to harsh ground realities where children,
international travellers, and elderly people have fallen victim to dog-bite
incidents,” it added.
Dog-bite
cases across the country have seen a nearly 70 per cent jump between calendar years
2022 and 2024. In 2024, a total of 3.7 million dog bites, with 54 suspected
cases of human deaths due to rabies, were reported, according to data from the
Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) under the Ministry of Health
and Family Welfare.