New Delhi: Supreme Court Wednesday flagged concern over state governments not complying with its instructions to reinforce their stray dog sterilisation capability, saying, “They are all building castles in the air.”
A bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and N V Anjaria, which commenced listening to states’ submissions on compliance of its earlier instructions, expressed its unhappiness over the progress and mentioned they have been engaged in “storytelling”.
Senior advocate Gaurav Agarwal, who has been appointed amicus curiae in the matter, summarised the initiatives taken by totally different states, whereas flagging the deficiencies.
He identified that some states have taken steps in consonance with the high court docket’s path, however there was nonetheless an extended method to go for whole compliance.
The governments must step up animal contraception (ABC) amenities, ramp up sterilisation of stray canine, arrange dog kilos (animal shelters), fence up institutional areas and take away stray animals from roads and highways, the advocate mentioned.
Pointing to the initiatives taken by the Bihar authorities, Agrawal mentioned there are 34 ABC Centres the place, they are saying, 20,648 canine have been sterilised. But they haven’t specified the day by day capability of sterilisation, and for what interval the determine specifies, he mentioned.
“The state ought to have finished an entire audit of ABC centres. If there are greater than six lakh canine in the state, sterilisation of 20,648 canine is completely inadequate. Ninety-one canine are presently lodged in the kilos.
“The affidavit does not indicate in how many institutional areas the survey has been done to see if there are fences, boundary walls, etc.,” Agarwal submitted.
The bench mentioned, “They are all building castles in the air. None of the states have given data on how many stray dog bites happened, except for Assam.”
Advocate Manish Kumar, showing for the Bihar authorities, nonetheless, mentioned the state was placing issues in place, and substantial progress will probably be made inside three months.
The high court docket additionally expressed shock over the information on dog bites in Assam. “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,” it noticed.
The bench mentioned that states can not make obscure statements, and all obscure averments are made on affidavits. “We are going to pass strong strictures against states that make vague averments,” Justice Nath mentioned.
The apex court docket, which additionally heard the submissions of Goa, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Gujarat, noticed non-compliance of instructions for fencing of institutional areas to forestall ingress of stray animals into colleges and hospitals.
“Every public building should be fenced, not only because of stray dogs or other animals but also to protect the property from theft,” the bench noticed. It mentioned that states have engaged in “storytelling and nothing concrete appears to have been done on the ground”.
Agrawal mentioned he’ll summarise the steps taken by Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Telangana on Thursday.
The high court docket posted the issues for listening to on Thursday.
On January 20, the high court docket got here down closely on former Union minister Maneka Gandhi for her remarks criticising apex court docket orders in the stray dog situation, saying she has dedicated contempt of court docket.
The high court docket was listening to a number of petitions looking for modification of its November 7, 2025, order directing authorities to take away stray animals from the institutional areas and roads. On January 13, the high court docket mentioned it will ask states to pay a “heavy compensation” for dog chunk incidents and maintain dog feeders accountable for such circumstances.
The court docket additionally flagged issues over the non-implementation of norms on stray animals for the final 5 years.
Earlier, the apex court docket mentioned it will not go into the allegations of harassment of girls dog feeders and caregivers by purported anti-feeder vigilantes because it was a regulation and order situation, and the aggrieved individuals may lodge FIRs about it. It additionally refused to enter the claims about sure derogatory remarks being made about girls on the situation.
Taking be aware of the “alarming rise” in dog-bite incidents inside institutional areas resembling instructional establishments, hospitals and railway stations, the apex court docket on November 7 directed relocation of stray canines forthwith to designated shelters after due sterilisation and vaccination.
It had additionally mentioned stray canine picked up shall not be launched again to their authentic place. The court docket had directed authorities to make sure the removing of all cattle and different stray animals from the state highways, nationwide highways and expressways.
The high court docket is listening to a suo motu case, initiated on July 28 final yr, over a media report on stray dog bites resulting in rabies, notably amongst youngsters, in the nationwide capital.
PTI
