SC notice to Centre, states on children dying in open bore wells

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Centre, states and Union Territories (UTs) to respond to a plea seeking action against authorities for failing to prevent children from falling into abandoned or open bore wells and dying across the country.

A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and M R Shah agreed to hear the plea filed by advocate G S Mani who has also sought direction to the authorities to take action against erring government officials for non-compliance of directions given by the top court in 2010.

The bench issued notices to the Centre, states and UT on the plea and asked them to file their replies. In his plea, Mani has urged the top court to call for the records from the Centre, states and UTs regarding steps taken by them to prevent children from falling into open or abandoned bore well pursuant to the directions given by the apex court in its August 2010 order. He said citizens were being "victimised" due to failure of administration to close these open bore wells as several deaths have been reported from across the country due to this.

Giving details of such incidents, the plea said that first such case was highlighted in 2006 when a child was rescued by the Army from an open bore well.

He has also referred to the October last year incident in Tamil Nadu in which a three-year-old child Sujith Wilson had died after falling in an open bore well.