By IANS,
New Delhi : The Supreme Court Tuesday fumed over the absence of chief secretaries of Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Arunachal Pradesh who were told to explain the failure of their respective administrations to respond to a notice to file status report on missing children.
The apex court bench headed by Chief Justice Alatams Kabir took strong exception at the three chief secretaries disobeying the court’s directive.
The angry court asked if it should issue non-bailable warrants to secure their presence.
“What do you think that we are passing orders just for the sake of passing orders,” Chief Justice Kabir said, reprimanding the counsel appearing for the respective states.
“Nobody seems to be bothered about the plight of the missing children. This is the irony,” the chief justice observed when senior counsel H.S. Phoolka, appearing for NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan, told the court that everyday 100 children, who go missing, remain untraced.
Directing the chief secretaries of the three states to be present in person in the court in the next hearing Feb 19, the court directed the Home Ministry, Ministry of Woman and Child Development and Ministry of Social Justice to file their affidavits in response to the petition.
The court, by its Jan 17 order, directed chief secretaries of Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Arunachal Pradesh, Goa and Odisha to be present in the court for their failure to respond to the notice issued by the court on a public interest litigation on missing children. Only officials of Goa and Odisha turned up.