Mad, bad, dangerous anthropocentrism

The Supreme Court's Monday diktat on Delhi-NCR's stray dogs is neither considered nor constitutional. It's an arbitrary fiat that bulldozes past earlier enlightened court rulings, principle of natural justice, established Animal Birth Control (ABC) Rules 2023 - and even GoI's own April admission in Parliament that 'intensive implementation of ABC is the only rational, scientific solution' to control dog populations and rabies. In May 2024, after 16 years of hearings, a CJI bench upheld ABC rules. This latest order trashes them in one stroke, with no explanation for the U-turn. Worse, it leans on possible inaccurate data. We're told Delhi has 8 lakh dogs and just two hospitals - Ram Manohar Lohia and Safdarjung - reported 1.5 lakh dog-bite cases (2025 data). That would mean 1 in 5 dogs has bitten people and all victims magically showed up at these two hospitals. And are these even all stray bites? The last dog census in Delhi was carried out in 2016.

Justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan's directives, draped in the pious description of 'larger public interest', have handed a free pass to authorities who, for years, have dodged their legal duties - dog censuses, ABC programmes, vaccinations. Where did the ABC budget go? On the ground, most shelters are filthy holding cells, municipal coffers are threadbare, and veterinary staff scarce. Yet, the order demands the impossible, risks turning citizens on each other, and lets the real culprits - failing authorities - walk free without so much as a rap on the knuckles.

This isn't just about dogs. It's about judicial decision-making that shrugs off facts, shields the accountable and ignores proven, science-based solutions. The court should overturn the order as soon as possible. Manufacturing a 'menace', and then finding a quick 'final solution', is not just bestial but also the worst kind of irrational anthropocentric 'justice' in action.