The Delhi Police booked unidentified persons after animal rights activists and rescuers held a protest at India Gate on Monday evening against the Supreme Court’s order to relocate all stray dogs in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) to shelters within eight weeks.
According to the police, they booked them under Section 223 (disobeying a lawful order issued by a public servant) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS)
The police also detained several demonstrators, including caregivers, who expressed deep concern over the implementation of the SC order on stray dogs, warning of grim consequences for the animals.
“We are not being allowed to protest… We want the dogs to be protected. There are no shelter homes to accommodate so many dogs. In the end, they will throw all the dogs outside Delhi, where they will die,” a caregiver told reporters while being escorted away by the police.
Earlier in the day, a bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan directed the Delhi Government, municipal corporations, and the administrations of Noida, Gurgaon, and Ghaziabad to remove stray dogs from the streets and place them in dedicated shelters. The bench stressed that the canines should not be released back onto the streets once relocated.
The court, which took suo motu cognisance of the issue on July 28 following a news report about the stray dog menace, described the situation in the National Capital Region as “grim” and called for “immediate steps” to protect public safety. It also warned that individuals or organisations obstructing the relocation process could face action.
The court directed the authorities “to maintain a daily record of stray dogs captured and detained”. “However, what is important, and without which the entire exercise would be futile, not a single stray dog should be released, and if we know that this has happened, we will take stern action,” it said.
