Supreme Court Imposes Rs 1 Lakh Cost on Nine States, Rs 5 Lakh on Haryana

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday imposed a cost of Rs 1 lakh each on nine States and Union Territories (UTs) and Rs 5 lakh on Haryana for not notifying the names of civil society members in their committees to take care of the needs of the urban homeless. A bench of Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice Deepak Gupta slammed the states and UTs saying housing was a basic need for everyone.

The bench imposed a cost of Rs one lakh each on nine states and UTs of Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Manipur, Goa, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Odisha and Tripura, while slapping Rs 5 lakh cost on Haryana. Initially, the bench imposed Rs 1 lakh cost on Haryana, but the counsel appearing for the state insisted that the name of civil society member has been notified, however, when the bench perused the document, the name was not there and it enhanced the amount of fine to Rs 5 lakh. It, however, did not impose the cost on Uttarakhand considering the “peculiar circumstances” in the state due to the flood. The court directed these states and UTs to issue a notification in this regard within two weeks.

It also asked all the states and UTs to formulate a plan of action, if not already done, on or before October 31, 2018, which will also include identification of homeless persons, providing them with some identity cards, and the nature of shelter required. It had earlier taken into note that several states have not yet constituted the committee to deal with the issues of implementation of the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM). (IANS)