New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday slammed Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) for failing to provide night shelters to the homeless in the national capital and criticised the police for "beating" people for sleeping on the roadside.
"Your (DUSIB led by Delhi government) job is to see that nobody sleep on the footpath. You have to deal with the problem, looking at other aspect. You cannot shut your eyes...
"It is attitude of passing the parcel. The idea (night shelter) behind is that nobody sleep on road side, they be provided night shelters," a bench of acting Chief Justice B D Ahmed and Justice S Mridul said.
It also pulled up Delhi Police for not taking action on the complaint filed by an NGO, which had alleged that the policemen beat the homeless for sleeping on roadside and a woman had even died during the assault.
"Please lodge an FIR immediately. Nobody has the right to beat people like this, even if we assume that they (persons) are criminals. File a case, it`s matter of investigation.
"No one can beat poor people like this. Not every one is bad...," the court said, while hearing the plea filed by the NGO, which had alleged that the government`s apathy towards the residents of the night shelters has led to the rise in the number of deaths this winter.
The high court had earlier directed Delhi government to submit its long and short term policies for providing shelter to the homeless.
The bench had also directed the government to file an affidavit on the number of homeless people who may have died due to cold weather conditions.
During the hearing, senior advocate for NGO Jayant Bhushan appraised the court that some of the night shelters have been removed by the city government.
"Main aim of the night shelter is to give shelter to homeless throughout the year. It is not only meant for winter, in summer poor requires it more," he said.
