Covid-19: Supreme Court seeks report from Yogi government

New Delhi: The Supreme Court Tuesday asked the Uttar Pradesh government to file a status report on news articles that 57 minor girls of Kanpur-based shelter home have tested positive for COVID-19 recently. The top court has taken suo motu (on its own) cognizance of the condition of children in protection -- be it juvenile, foster or kinship homes across the country -- amid the coronavirus or COVID-19 pandemic and has sought compliance reports from the states on the directions issued by it on April 3 to ensure protection of the children.

Recently, lawyer Aparna Bhat moved a plea seeking proper "medical treatment and facilities" to 57 minor girls, who have tested positive for COVID-19 in a Kanpur-based shelter home in Uttar Pradesh.

During the hearing, conducted via video conferencing, the apex court was also apprised by Tamil Nadu''''s counsel that 35 COVID-19 positive children of a government-run shelter home at Royapurum in Chennai have now recovered and are back to the facility.

A bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao, Krishna Murari and S Ravindra Bhat appointed advocate Gaurav Agarwal as the amicus curiae to assist it and directed states like UP, Uttarakhand and Odisha to file their responses to the amicus by Friday and listed the case for hearing on July 13.

"Except the states of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Odisha, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Tripura and Manipur, all the other states have filed their response pursuant to the order passed by us on June 11," the bench said in its order.

"The Advocates on Record (AoR) for all the States are directed to supply a copy of the response filed by them to the learned Amicus Curiae within two days. The Advocates on Record are permitted to serve copies of the report in digital form as well. List on July 13," the order said.

On April 3, the top court had issued directions to all the state governments and various other authorities to protect children in protection.