he Delhi High Court has asked the authorities to strictly comply with all provisions relating to the capture and the release of street dogs for special events such as Independence Day and Republic Day. The order — released on Wednesday — came on a public interest litigation by Anita Santiago, who sought directions to release the dogs captured by the civic authorities for such events and to ensure their welfare according to the Animal Birth Control (ABC) Rules, 2023.

The court directed the Delhi Government, Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and the Animal Welfare Board of India to ensure strict compliance of all the provisions under Animal Birth Control Rules, 2023, while capturing and releasing the stray dogs.

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) counsel said it is following the ABC Rules and, as far as the G20 Summit was concerned, the process to release the captured strays has already been initiated. The counsel for Animal Welfare Board of India affirmed the MCD’s submission. The civic body has told the Court that the process of releasing stray dogs that were captured during the preparation for the G 20 summit has been initiated in strict adherence with law.

In view of the stand taken by the authorities, the court said no further orders were required on the petition.” Learned Counsel for the MCD has stated before this court that the process of releasing the dogs that were captured in preparation for the G20 Summit has already been initiated in strict adherence to the ABC Rules and with the assistance of the AWBI. These submissions are affirmed by the Learned Counsel for the AWBI. In light of the aforenoted submissions, the Respondent authorities are directed to ensure strict compliance with all the provisions prescribed under the ABC Rules relating to the capture and release of street dogs,” said a bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Sanjeev Narula in an order dated September 11.

The counsel appearing for Petitioner submitted that a detailed mechanism for capture and release of dogs has been prescribed under the Animal Birth Control Rules, 2023, which should be followed diligently by the MCD.

The petitioner highlighted the ABC Rules mandate that the dogs should be identified with numbered collars immediately upon capture to maintain proper records that would subsequently facilitate their release in the same locality from where they were captured.

In her petition, Anita Santiago raised concern with respect to allegations of the inhumane way the MCD was “removing street dogs” for the G20 Summit in “blatant violation” of the ABC Rules.

“Any event which makes the country proud and where the nation needs to project itself to the world calls for few steps of discretion for efficient organisation of such events, however, the same has to be within the bounds of law and not beyond it,” she said in her plea.

“Actions of respondent no 1 (MCD) are impugned in this petition whereby the respondent no 1 despite withdrawal of its circulars for unlawful capture of dogs has permitted the use of government machinery to capture dogs with the assistance of private unauthorised persons,” the petition alleged. Advocates Nirbhay Kumar, Nishant Mandal, Anshu Anand and Shubham Srivastava appeared for petitioner.

The animals right activists has alleged the civic body has started releasing canines back into colonies - at random, not their home habitats. “Many dogs were not properly tagged while being picked up and locked in pounds, kept away from their territories for several days, and released into neighbourhoods at random after the end of G 20 summit,” they alleged.