New Delhi, 16 January (H.S.): A Delhi court sharply criticised the Sanjay Gandhi Animal Care Centre (SGACC) on Friday for flagrant defiance of a judicial directive to relinquish custody of ten dogs seized during a criminal investigation, dismissing the shelter's justifications as wholly inadequate and obfuscatory.

Additional Sessions Judge Surabhi Sharma Vats, presiding at Karkardooma Courts, issued the admonition while adjudicating a criminal revision petition lodged by SGACC. The petition contested a magistrate court's August order mandating the release of the dogs—originally impounded from an individual named Vishal amid a probe linked to Jagat Puri police station—back to their purported owner.

The court lambasted SGACC's conduct as emblematic of blatant non-compliance, gross negligence, and deliberate misrepresentation, underscoring that such lapses imperil animal lives, contravene statutory obligations under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, and erode the shelter's professed mandate of welfare advocacy.

Judge Vats emphasised that animals constitute sentient beings meriting life, dignity, and meticulous care, not mere chattels or evidentiary artifacts to be casually retained. Prior disclosures from the shelter revealed the dogs' parlous health, with indications that some may have perished in custody, prompting the court to decry profound deficiencies in oversight, medical attention, and documentation.

Rejecting SGACC's pleas of staffing shortages and identification hurdles—unmitigated by any judicial stay on the original order—the court mandated a sworn status report by January 16, 2026.

This document must delineate the aggregate count of animals and birds sequestered from accused persons, fatalities under care, returns to owners, and prevailing protocols for identification and veterinary support . The matter stands poised for further hearing on the same day, signalling intensified judicial scrutiny over the shelter's operations.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar