New Delhi, Aug. 23 -- Holding that the earlier prohibition on releasing stray dogs was "too harsh", the Supreme Court on Friday modified its August 11 directions on the mass capture of stray dogs, clarifying that canines picked up by municipal authorities in Delhi and four adjoining districts , Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurugram and Faridabad, will be released in the same locality after sterilisation and immunisation, except for those suffering from rabies or displaying aggressive behaviour. The top court's clarification that community dogs must be picked up, sterilised and vaccinated, and then released -- save for rabid or demonstrably aggressive animals -- essentially reiterates the Animal Birth Control (ABC) Rules, 2023. Those rules, framed under Section 38 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, require local authorities to run ABC and anti-rabies programmes premised on catch-neuter-vaccinate-release. A three-judge bench, led by Justice Vikram Nath, noted that some of the mandates in the August 11 order by a bench of two judges were "impossible to comply with" given existing infrastructure as it underlined that the revised framework must be implemented in consonance with the Animal Birth Control (ABC) Rules, 2023. The bench said the order could not be enforced in disregard of the statutory framework under the ABC Rules. P2...