Supreme Court: Taking suo motu cognizance of the issue where 35 out of 57 children in a Protection Home at Royapuram, Chennai have been infected with COVID-19 and are hospitalized, the 3-judge bench of L. Nageswara Rao, Krishna Murari and S. Ravindra Bhat, JJ has asked the Health and Family Welfare Department, State of Tamil Nadu and secretary to Social Welfare Department to submit a report giving details of the reasons for the spread of COVID-19 in the said Protection Home.
“The status of the health of children in conflict with law in various protection homes in the State of Tamil Nadu shall be given in the report which shall be submitted by 15.06.2020.”
The Court also annexed a questionnaire along with the order which is to be circulated to the State Governments in order to seek information on the issue at hand. The Juvenile Justices Committees of the High Courts shall also be supplied with the questionnaire which is annexed to this order.
“The Juvenile Justices Committees of the High Courts shall ensure that the State Governments provide the information that is sought for in the questionnaire before 30.6.2020.”
The Court has based the questionnaire on it’s order dated 03.04.2020 wherein, after taking suo motu cognizance of the issue involving protection of children who fall within the ambit of Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 from the spread of Coronavirus that is sweeping the world, the bench of L. Nageswara Rao and Deepak Gupta, JJ issued extensive directions to various authorities.
The matter will next be taken up on 06.07.2020.
[IN RE CONTAGION OF COVID 19 VIRUS IN CHILDREN PROTECTION HOMES, Suo Motu Writ Petition (C) No.4/2020, order dated 12.06.2020]
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COVID-19| SC issues extensive directions to protect children in Protection Homes from spread of coronavirus
Click here to read the Questionnaire.
