The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) today informed the Supreme Court that some states, including Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, have allowed it to conduct social audits of child care institutions (CCIs).
The Commission told a bench comprising justices Madan B Lokur, S Abdul Nazeer and Deepak Gupta that besides Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, the state of Tripura has also given its permission to conduct social audit of CCIs.
The NCPCR had earlier told the bench that permission to conduct social audit was not granted by some states including Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Tripura.
Advocate Aparna Bhat, assisting the apex court as an amicus curiae in the matter relating to abuse of children at orphanages, told the bench that these states were asked to explain as to why they had not granted permission to NCPCR to conduct social audit.
Senior advocate Ranjit Kumar, appearing for Bihar government, said that the state had earlier "deferred" this issue since the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) was conducting social audit of shelter homes in the state.
"At that point of time, Bihar had not given permission as TISS was doing it. Now, we have given permission to NCPCR. We have also taken action on TISS report. We had not said no at that time. We had only deferred it," Kumar told the bench.
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Additional Solicitor General Pinky Anand, appearing for the Centre, told the bench that social audit by NCPCR was going on and it was likely to be completed by October end this year.
The bench posted the matter for further hearing on August 21 after the amicus said that other issues related to the case would be taken up for hearing on that date.
The apex court had earlier expressed serious concern over recent cases of rape and sexual abuse of women at shelter homes in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and had asked when these horrific incidents would stop.
Incidents of rape and sexual abuse of women and girls at shelter homes run by NGOs have surfaced recently in Muzaffarpur in Bihar and Deoria and Pratapgarh districts in Uttar Pradesh.
On May 5 last year, the apex court had passed a slew of directions including setting up of a data base of children living in orphanages and CCIs to ensure their safety and welfare.
It had directed the Centre, state governments and Union Territories to complete the registration of all child care institutions by the year-end.