Taking offence at the passiveness of the Bihar government in the case of safety of children housed in shelter homes in the state, the Supreme Court on Thursday slammed the government. "Enough is enough, children cannot be treated like this," the court said. The court was speaking in reference to the Muzaffarpur shelter home sexual abuse case.
The court ordered the transfer of the shelter home case from Patna to a court in New Delhi. The case will now be heard in the Saket POCSO Court in New Delhi.
The court also ordered the Saket court judge to commence the trial in two weeks and to complete the hearing within six months. To facilitate this, the court said that the records of the Muzaffarpur sexual harassment case should be transferred from Bihar CBI court to Saket trial court within two weeks.
The court also slammed the Bihar government for its managment of the shelter homes and questioned it over the incomplete information provided by it on the status of shelter homes in the state.
“Give us details of the 110 shelter homes in the state. How many inmates are there? How is the state giving assistance and what is the number of male and female inmates,” Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi said.
The bench warned that the Bihar chief secretary will be summoned if the lawyer representing the case cannot answer the court's questions. The bench also questioned the CBI and the Centre for transferring the CBI officer who was probing the Muzaffarpur shelter home despite the court's embargo against transfer of investigating officials.
Several girls were allegedly raped and sexually abused at an NGO-run shelter home in Muzaffarpur. The issue came to light in May last year following a report by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS).
