New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday imposed costs on several states for not filling up vacancies in State Commissions for Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR) and directed them to comply with its earlier order.
A bench of Justices M.B. Lokur and Deepak Gupta imposed Rs 50,000 cost each on Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Chandigarh, Maharashtra and Telangana and asked them to file affidavits in two weeks stating compliance of the order.
The apex court expressed its displeasure over non-compliance of its order saying more than three months have passed but the states have not yet filed compliance reports.
Several states like Goa, Kerala, Bihar, Gujarat, Assam and Tamil Nadu said that they have complied with the earlier order and constituted the commission.
The apex court, which posted the matter for hearing on August 9, had on April 5 pulled up the states for not filling up the vacancies in the commission and directed them to do so within four weeks.
It had observed that despite a law enacted by Parliament, there were states which did not have fully operational SCPCR for the protection and welfare of children and there were vacancies as well.
The court had said that some states had not even given the names of the chairperson or members of the SCPS to the Centre rendering it to draw an inference that they do not have an operational commission.
The Centre had earlier said that various states were in the process of appointing or re-appointing the chairperson and members of the commission while in states like Maharashtra, the process of appointment was at the “final stage”.
