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The top court on August 22 had expanded the scope of the stray dogs case beyond the Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) limits and directed that all states and union territories be made parties to the case.
According to the cause list dated October 27 uploaded on the apex court website, the case will be heard by a three-judge special bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and NV Anjaria.
Apart from the suo motu case, four separate petitions related to the issue are also listed for hearing.
In its order passed on August 22, the top court had modified its earlier direction banning vaccination of stray dogs in Delhi-NCR, terming it “too harsh” and ordered the dogs to be released after sterilization and de-worming.
Read also, Delhi government has declared a public holiday on October 27 for Chhath.
While pronouncing the order, the bench had said that all similar cases pending in high courts across the country will come before the top court for a “final national policy or decision” on the issue.
The bench had said that the municipal authorities will continue to follow the August 11 directions to pick up stray dogs from all areas of Delhi, Ghaziabad, Noida, Faridabad and Gurugram and immediately create dog shelters or pounds.
It was said that the August 11 directive prohibiting the release of picked-up stray dogs will be kept in abeyance for the time being.
“The dogs that will be picked up will be sterilised, dewormed, vaccinated and released back in the same area from where they were picked up,” the three-judge bench had said.
It had clarified that transfer should not apply to dogs infected with rabies or suspected to be infected with rabies and dogs displaying aggression.
It had directed the municipal authorities to file an affidavit of compliance with the complete data of resources available till date such as dog pounds, veterinarians, dog trapping personnel, specially modified vehicles and cages for the purpose of compliance with the Animal Birth Control (ABC) rules.
The bench had made all the states and union territories parties to the case, observing that the application of the ABC rules was uniform across India.
A two-judge bench of the apex court had passed a series of directions on August 11, including ordering authorities in Delhi-NCR to start picking up stray dogs from all localities “as soon as possible” and shifting the dogs to dog shelters.
The bench had passed this order on July 28 in a suo motu case initiated over media reports of rabies being bitten by stray dogs, especially among children, in the national capital.
The August 11 order was followed by widespread protests across the country.
Later the case came up for hearing before a special bench of three judges.