The High Court of Delhi was recently apprised that the Delhi government was in the process of framing a policy for streamlining the supply of meals to government-run night shelters in the national capital.
The Division Bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Sanjeev Narula took note of the fact that the outstanding dues of Akshaya Patra Foundation, the agency providing food to all night shelters in Delhi, which stood over Rs nine crore, has already been cleared.
The High Court slated the matter for next hearing on October 13, 2023.
The development ensued in a suo motu case initiated by the court on a news report forwarded by Delhi High Court judge Justice C. Hari Shanker to the Chief Justice highlighting that a Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) shelter for homeless single women based in Nizamuddin is left without food supply and that its inmates are now forced to beg on streets.
As per the media report published in The Times of India on April 28, 2023, Akshaya Patra Foundation halted supplying meals to the shelter house, forcing around 60 homeless single women, including elderly and people with disabilities, and 17 children living at the shelter house to beg on the streets for food.
During the course of hearing, Senior Advocate Dayan Krishnan, the amicus curiae appointed by the court to assist in the matter, drew the attention of the bench to the fact that at present, there is no policy in existence in respect of the process of supply of meals to DUSIB shelters and that the agency is supplying meals only under the orders of this court.
He submitted that every month the Foundation incurs recurring expenditure to the tune of approximately Rs.1 crores and thus, suggested that the Delhi Government as well as the DUSIB be directed to ensure payment of the current bills and the future payments to the agency.
At this juncture, Advocate Santosh Kumar Tripathi, representing the Delhi government, apprised the Bench that the government was in the process of streamlining the supply of meals to DUSIB shelters and the payment mechanism for such supplies.
In lieu thereof, the Bench observed thus-“As the matter is pending consideration before the Delhi Government for framing a policy on supply of meals to DUSIB shelters, we adjourn the hearing.”
Earlier, the bench had directed the personal appearance of the Chief Executive Director of DUSIB on July 20, in case the board fails to make payment of dues to the Akshaya Patra Foundation.