The Supreme Court continued its hearing on the stray dog menace issue on Wednesday, with the bench asking senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who was representing the ‘dog lovers’, a number of sharp questions.
The bench again flagged the increasing number of dog bite cases across the country and slammed the municipal authorities all over the nation for failing to protect their citizens from stray dog attacks.
“Children, adults are getting bit. People are dying”, the bench stated. The SC judges also informed that in the last 20 days, 2 animal-ralated road accidents have happened with judges and one judge is in a serious condition.
During today’s hearing, senior advocate and Congress leader Kapil Sibal tried to argue on behalf of the stray dogs, claiming that the dog lover “community” takes care of stray dogs and there are stray dogs in Khan Market who have never bitten him. The Bench reminded Sibal that just because he has been lucky to never have been bitten by a dog in Khan Market, does not mean everyone has.
Sibal also tried to suggest “rehabilitation” for “unruly dogs”. Upon this, the bench sarcastically remarked that only thing that is left now is counselling, and someone should counsel the “unruly” dogs against biting humans.
Sibal enlists suggestions to tackle dog bites and rehabilitation of “unruly” dogs.
Justice Mehta: The only thing left out is counselling. Somebody should also counsel dogs that they shouldn’t bite people.— Utkarsh Anand (@utkarsh_aanand) January 7, 2026
Frustrated that his ‘dog lover’ arguements failed to convince the judges, Sibal reportedly asked why are the judges making him argue if they have made up their minds about the stray dogs case. Justice Mehta then reminded Sibal that the bench has not forced Sibal to come and argue for stray dogs.
On Tuesday, the bench comprising of of Justices Sandeep Mehta, Vikram Nath and NV Anjaria had insisted on ‘prevention’ of the dog bite incidents, rather than cure.
Last year SC judges JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan had taken suo motu cognisance of the alarmingly high number of rabies deaths and incidents of stray dog attacks across the nation. In November last year, the SC had ordered state governments and NHAI to ensure there are no stray dogs in National Highways, educational institutions and public spaces.
OpIndia has been extensively covering the stray dog menace in India and how courts across the country have been taking up the issue of municipal negligence, and ‘dog lovers’ putting dog lives above human lives. Our articles can be read here.
