'Building castles in air': Supreme Court rebukes states over failure to enhance stray dog sterilisation capacity

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday sharply criticised states for failing to comply with its directions to enhance stray dog sterilisation capacity, saying, “They are all building castles in the air.”

A bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta, and NV Anjaria made the remark while hearing the governments’ submissions on their compliance with the court’s earlier directions.

“They are all building castles in the air. None of the states have given data on how many stray dog bites happened, except for Assam,” PTI quoted the bench as saying.

The judges also expressed surprise over Assam’s dog bite data. “Look at the statistics of bites. It is astonishing. In 2024, there were 1.66 lakh bites. And in 2025, only in January, there were 20,900. This is shocking,” they observed.




“States cannot make vague statements, and all vague averments are made on affidavits. We are going to pass strong strictures against states that make vague averments,” Justice Nath warned.

The remarks followed submissions by senior advocate Gaurav Agarwal, the amicus curiae in the case, who summarised initiatives taken by different states while highlighting deficiencies. He noted that although some states have taken steps in line with the Supreme Court’s directions, there was still “a long way to go” for full compliance.

The governments would need to expand animal birth control (ABC) facilities, increase sterilisation of stray dogs, set up dog pounds, fence institutional areas, and remove stray animals from roads and highways, Agarwal said.

Highlighting Bihar’s initiatives, Agarwal stated that the state has 34 ABC centres where it claims 20,648 dogs have been sterilised. However, the state has not specified the daily sterilisation capacity or the period this figure covers.

“The state should have done a complete audit of ABC centres. If there are more than six lakh dogs in the state, sterilisation of 20,648 dogs is totally insufficient. Ninety-one dogs are presently lodged in the pounds. The affidavit does not indicate in how many institutional areas the survey has been done to see if there are fences, boundary walls, etc.,” Agarwal submitted.

Advocate Manish Kumar, appearing for Bihar, sought three months’ time, stating that the state was putting systems in place and “substantial progress” would be made in that period.

The Supreme Court also heard submissions from Goa, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Gujarat, and posted the matter for further hearing on Thursday.

The suo motu case, initiated on July 28 last year, arose from a media report on stray dog bites leading to rabies, particularly among children in Delhi.
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