New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought responses from all the states and UTs regarding the issue of shelter homes for the homeless within the next 3 weeks. It further said that it will decide if it wants to deal with the matter or designate it to the High Courts after going through all the responses.
The bench comprising CJI UU Lalit, Justice S Ravindra Bhat, and Justice Bela M Trivedi, hearing a batch of matters regarding providing sufficient shelter homes to the homeless, observed that considering the huge population of the country, it has become very difficult to manage the situation.
"I am not being pessimistic but looking at the population of the country, even if there are zero people left outside, there will always be some who are left out at some point...population is such. To be managing the entire case state, taluka, or district-wise is difficult. To what level can we manage this?" said CJI UU Lalit during the hearing.
The CJI further suggested that it would be better for the High Courts to look into the matter, but Adv Prashant Bhushan -- who appeared in the matter from the petitioners' side -- said that interference of the top court has highlighted the problem, which will be difficult to establish at the HC level.
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Justice Lalit further said that though the center has financed the procedure, the court is examining the matter. He said that the matter was in cold storage for 3 years and has been listed only because he started digging up cases. Adv Prashant Bhushan, responding to the CJI's concerns, said that the state committees constituted for the matter have become defunct. He said that good ground-level people are needed to pinpoint details of the issue. The Supreme Court then proceeded to issue directions seeking responses from the states regarding the matter.
In the earlier hearings, the Supreme Court had issued various directions seeking responses, status reports, records of the homeless, etc. consequently constituting a committee to look into the matter. The committee headed by retired Delhi HC judge, Kailash Gambhir, had looked into the matter and had submitted certain recommendations. Thereafter the court never heard the matter and was listed for hearing today, after 3 years.
The court said that after responses are filed by states and UTs, the court will go through them and then decide the further course of action. The matter will be heard again on 29th November 2022.
