New Delhi/IBNS: The Supreme Court on Friday 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.

A three-judge bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and NV Anjaria said the stray dogs, which were picked, should be released from the shelters to their original places after sterilisation, deworming and immunisation.

Only the dogs which are aggressive or infected with rabies will not be released.

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

The court has said no individual or an organisation can stop the municipal authorities from picking up dogs as per the ABC guidelines.

"Municipal authorities shall comply with para 12, 12.1 and 12.2, prohibition on release of strays shall be stayed. They shall be dewormed, vaccinated, etc, and sent back to the same area.

"Those dogs with aggressive behavior or with rabies shall be immunized and not released," said Justice Nath as quoted by NDTV.

The bench has directed all petitions in the High Court related to the matter to be transferred to the top court to formulate a national policy.

The three judges heard the case again after Chief Justice of India BR Gavai assured to re-examination the order that has triggered outrage.

The top court had 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 in the wake of the death cases due to dog bites and rabies.

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

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.