"Children are missing in the country and you (Centre) cannot be so casual in your approach. Your secretary is just writing letters. We are extremely dissatisfied," a social justice bench of justices Madan B Lokur and UU Lalit said. Imposing a fine of Rs 50,000 on the Ministry, it also expressed displeasure over non-filling up of vacancies, including for the post of Chairperson of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR).
The bench asked the Union Women and Child Development Ministry to inform it about the status of missing children and those recovered in a state-wise tabular chart as on March 31.
Referring to the statutory provision on vacancies, the bench said the Chairperson of NCPCR and its members were required to be appointed within 90 days of the posts falling vacant. "More than six months have gone by, you have not appointed the chairperson. This is disgusting," it said.
Pointing out that the posts for members of NCPCR were lying vacant for last one-and-half years, it asked the Centre to do the needful expeditiously.
The Supreme Court also expressed “shock” over the response of the Centre that it has not conducted statutory “social audit” of the funds disbursed to states under the Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS). A social justice bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and U U Lalit, dissatisfied with the response of the Centre, asked the Secretary of the Ministry of Women and Child Development to appear in person before it on the next date of hearing.
SC extends Jaya's bail till May 12 in DA case
The Supreme Court on Friday extended the bail granted to former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa till the disposal of her appeal before the Karnataka High Court in disproportionate assets case in which she has been sentenced to four years in jail. The apex court also allowed the plea of the Karnataka High court registry, which had filed an application on behalf of the judge hearing the
appeal seeking extension of the deadline of April 18 for disposal of the appeal to May 12.
SC appoints CBI SP to head team probing IPL scandal
The Supreme Court on Friday appointed CBI sleuth Vivek Priyadarshi to head a new investigating team to further probe the IPL-6 spot-fixing and betting scandal. Priyadarshi, currently a superintendent of police in the anti-corruption cell of the agency, will replace 1983-batch Assam-Meghalaya cadre IPS officer B B Mishra as the head of the probe team following his retirement.
Priyadarshi, who has handled some of the most high- profile cases including 2G spectrum allocation scam, was the choice of the apex court-appointed three-member committee of retired judges headed by former Chief Justice of India R M Lodha. The committee has been entrusted the job of further investigating the IPL-6 scandal, including the allegations against the then BCCI COO Sundar Raman.