On January 28, 2026, the Supreme Court criticised several State governments for weak efforts in sterilising stray dogs. A Bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta, and N.V. Anjaria questioned whether the States were "building castles in the air" with their claims. The Court was unhappy with the reports on animal birth control (ABC) centres, facilities, and shelters provided by the States. Senior advocate Gaurav Agarwal, appearing as amicus curiae, told the Court about Bihar's 34 ABC centres sterilising 20,648 dogs. However, he said the data lacked details like daily sterilisation capacity. "If there are more than six lakh dogs in the State, the sterilisation of 20,648 dogs was totally insufficient," he said. He also pointed out the lack of information on fencing institutional areas and removing stray dogs from roads. The Bench observed, "They are all building castles in the air. None of the States have given data on how many stray dog bites happened, except for Assam." The Court was particularly shocked by the number of dog bite cases in Assam, revealing 1.66 lakh bites in 2024 and 20,900 cases just in January 2025. Justice Vikram Nath warned, "We are going to pass strong strictures against States that make vague averments" to hide non-compliance. The Supreme Court scheduled the next hearing for January 29, 2026.