The Supreme Court highlighted the necessity of housing for everybody and held that if certain plan is prepared by the Union of India, it should be implemented in full spirit. Earlier, in a case the Court passed directions for the formation of committees to look into the issue of shelter for urban homeless. The Bench further referred to the situation as “sorry state of affairs” due to the fact that the directions have not been complied with.
The bench also took a note of the fact that in 11 states and union territories the civil society members have no yet been notified. It thus imposed the cost of Rupees 1 lakh on all the states. But, it did not impose the cost on Uttrakhand because of its situation in the past. It further gave time of two weeks to the States and Union Territories to issue the notification and slammed them for not showing concern towards urban homeless.
It was observed by the Bench, that some of the states/union territories have held meetings in this regard but some of them have not and where the meetings have been held, the officials who are the members of the committee have not attended the meeting. The states were advised to formulate a Plan of Action which should include the methodology for the identification of homeless persons, the nature of shelters, etc.
Therefore, the Court held that if no timely action is taken by the State Governments/Union Territories, then they will have to pay the costs imposed upon them since the persons without shelter cannot be left to fend for themselves.
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