Chief Justice of India B.R. Gavai on Wednesday constituted a special three-judge bench to examine the conflicting orders passed by two Supreme Court benches on stray dogs in the Delhi-NCR region.

On August 11, a bench of Justices J.B. Pardiwala and R. Mahadevan had ordered the permanent relocation of all stray dogs in Delhi-NCR within eight weeks in view of the rising instances of dog bites.

The CJI took the decision after two NGOs submitted that a bench of Justices J.K. Maheshwari and Sanjay Karol had last year directed the authorities to strictly follow the Animal Birth Control Rules and deal with stray dogs in a humane manner.

Advocate Nanita Sharma, appearing for the NGO Conference for Human Rights, said the August 11 order conflicted with the apex court’s earlier direction and requested the setting up of an appropriate bench to deal with the issue.

Another NGO informed the bench that the civic authorities in Delhi-NCR had started rounding up stray dogs even before the August 11 order was uploaded on the apex court’s website.

The CJI on Wednesday evening constituted a three-judge bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and N.V. Anjaria, which will hear the case on Thursday.

Orders passed by two-judge benches can be overruled only by a three-judge bench.

According to the August 11 order, there were 37,15,713 reported dog bites in the country in 2024. In Delhi alone, 25,201 dog bite cases were reported last year. In January 2025, the number of dog bites stood at 3,196 in Delhi.

“Visually impaired persons are at the highest risk of dog bites as their primary support, their canes, are seen as threats by the dogs. Young children are susceptible to dog bites due to which parents find it very difficult to allow their children to navigate on streets on their own,” the bench had observed.

“We have come across concerns of elderly persons being attacked by rambunctious dogs. We are not casting aspersions, but there is no way one can identify or classify between a rabies-carrying dog and others,” the bench had observed.

It said the situation was worse for people sleeping on the streets who “neither have the knowledge of the consequences of dog bites nor have any precautionary or post-exposure measures accessible to them”.

While directing compliance of its order within eight weeks, the bench had asked the authorities in Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon and Faridabad to start rounding up stray dogs from all localities.

“If any individual or any organisation comes in the way of forceful picking up of the stray dogs and rounding them up, and if it is reported to us, we shall proceed to take the strictest of actions against any such resistance which may be offered. We are issuing these directions keeping only one thing in mind and that is the larger public interest,” the bench had said.

The order had evoked a strong reaction from celebrities and animal lovers.