By IANS,
New Delhi : The Supreme Court Friday by way of “last opportunity” gave state governments and the union territories four weeks to file their response on the steps taken by them for implementing the National Human Rights Commission’s recommendations for eradication of bonded and child labour.
The apex court bench of Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia, Justice K.S. Radhakrishnan and Justice Swatanter Kumar said that if the state governments fail to file their Action Taken Report (ATR) within the said period then the chief secretaries and the law secretaries of the defaulting states will have to appear in person before the court.
The court was told that only West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh have filed their response to the court’s directions.
In a related case, the apex court has given the state governments four weeks time to give detail of the steps they have taken for compliance its directions to cap the abandoned bore wells to prevent fatal accidents of small children falling into them.
The Amicus Curiae P.S. Patwalia appearing in the abandoned bore well matter said that despite the apex court guidelines of Feb 11, 2010, the state governments have not taken steps to cap the abandoned bore wells.
The guidelines issued by the apex court bench of Justice B.S. Chauhan and Justice C.K. Prasad provided for detailed steps to cap the bore wells. The court had directed the state governments to give wide publicity to its guidelines.