Hours after Chief Justice of India BR Gavai assured to re-examine the Supreme Court order that directed a relocation of stray dogs in Delhi-NCR to shelters, the matter has been referred to a larger bench, which will hear the case on Thursday.

Acting on the directions of Chief Justice Gavai, a three-judge bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta, and NV Anjaria will hear the case.

The relocation had been ordered by a bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan on Monday and the issue was raised before the Chief Justice on Wednesday.

Seeking urgent listing, advocate Nanita Sharma informed Justice Gavai that there had been two conflicting rulings on the issue by the Supreme Court and an earlier bench had asked for the implementation of the Animal Birth Control (ABC) Rules, 2023, which state that sterilised and vaccinated stray dogs should be returned to the same locality.

This happened following a massive uproar from politicians, activists, and celebrities over the judgement.

The top court on Monday ruled that all stray dogs from the residential localities will have to be shifted to the shelters within eight weeks and any organisation attempting to block it will face the strictest punishment.

A bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan passed the order while hearing the matter after taking note of a news report on deaths due to rabies following dog bites.

The court said it will only hear the Centre's argument and not from any dog lover or a third party in the case.

"We are not doing this for us, it is for the public interest. So, no sentiments of any nature should be involved. Action should be taken at the earliest," Justice Pardiwala had said as quoted by NDTV.

"Pick up dogs from all localities and shift them to shelters. For the time being, forget the rules."

The court had ordered the Delhi government, the civic body MCD and New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) to pick up all stray dogs from residential areas, colonies of Delhi-NCR and place them in shelters.

The top court had also barred the adoption of stray dogs.

The civic authorities in Delhi-NCR had been asked to set up dog shelters, relocate the stray dogs, and depute professionals who can tackle, sterilise, and immunise the dogs.

From January to June this year, over 35,000 animal bite incidents have been reported from Delhi-NCR.

As per the official data produced by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), 49 cases of rabies have been reported in the same period, reports said.