New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday refused to pass an interim direction to prevent the culling of stray dogs in Uttar Pradesh's Sitapur district, where 13 children have been killed in suspected canine attacks in the past six months.

A vacation bench of Justices A.K. Goel and Ashok Bhushan said the matter would be listed in July before an "appropriate bench" which is already dealing with the legality of culling stray dogs in Kerala and Maharashtra.

The plea for an interim direction to stop the culling was made by senior advocate Vibha Makhija on behalf of Gargi Srivastava, an animal rights activist and lawyer, on the ground that hundreds of dogs were being illegally killed in Sitapur in connivance with the administration.

It was alleged that residents, panchayat members and others had resorted to indiscriminate killing of stray dogs in the past two months.

The animal activist submitted that there was no clear evidence to suggest that the children had died solely because of dog bites. It was possible they had been bitten by some other animal, like hyena, Srivastava said.

The plea was opposed by advocate V.K. Biju on behalf of Anil Kumar Yadav, a resident of Uttar Pradesh.

Biju told the court that the vacation bench need not pass any direction as the matter relating to stray dogs was listed next month before a bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra.