'They are sleeping': Supreme Court unleashes fury, orders top bureaucrats to appear physically in stray dogs case

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had requested Justice Vikram Nath to exempt them from physical appearance.

Rejecting the request, Justice Nath said as quoted by NDTV, "No, let them appear in person. It is very unfortunate that the court is giving time here, (but) the government makes rules and takes no action."

"They are sleeping (on the court order). Let them come; we will deal with them. They must appear in person and explain why compliance affidavits were not filed," the judge added.

On Monday, the top court came down heavily upon the Chief Secretaries for failing to file the compliance affidavits in its order that had directed the release of stray dogs after sterilisation and immunisation.

Only West Bengal and Telangana have filed their responses.

The Chief Secretaries of all states and union territories except West Bengal and Telangana have been summoned to offer an explanation on November 3.

In August, the Supreme Court had said dogs, except the aggressive ones, should be sterilised and released from shelter homes, modifying its previous order that had asked for a complete shifting to shelters.

Only the dogs which are aggressive or infected with rabies will not be released, the court had said in its order.

The top court had ordered a stop in public feeding of stray dogs and asked for the setting up of dedicated places for it.

The Supreme Court had modified its controversial order where a bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan had ruled that all stray dogs from the residential localities will have to be shifted to the shelters in the wake of deaths due to rabies following dog bites.