Thursday, Nov 25, 2004
Court directive on mid-day meal for children
By Our Legal Correspondent
NEW DELHI, NOV. 24. The Supreme Court has directed all States and Union Territories to provide cooked mid-day meal to primary school students by January 2005.
A Bench, comprising Justice Y.K. Sabharwal and Justice S.H. Kapadia, in its order said: "We direct that every child eligible for cooked mid-day meal under the mid-day meal scheme in all the States and Union Territories should be provided with the said meal immediately and, in any case, not later than the month of January 2005."
The Bench fixed the deadline on a petition filed by the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) when the Centre informed the court that it had decided to bear an additional burden of Re. 1 a child to meet the cost of cooking.
Rejecting the plea for extending the deadline further, the Bench said it would not be open for the governments concerned to delay the implementation of the scheme beyond the said date on the ground that they were yet to receive the necessary assistance from the Central Government.
The Bench made it clear that the scheme should be implemented forthwith and the cooking cost can be claimed from the Centre later. It asked the Chief Secretaries of the States and Union Territories to file affidavits explaining the steps being taken to implement the directions issued by the Court.
Copyright © 2004, The Hindu.