New Delhi, Feb 24: The Supreme Court today asked 20 states and four union territories to respond within four weeks to a scheme for rehabilitation of the children staying in prison with their undertrial or convict mothers. Giving the last opportunity to the states, a bench comprising Chief Justice V N Khare, Justice S B Sinha and Justice Ar. Lakshmanan asked them to respond to a scheme formulated by Tata Institute for Social Sciences on the issue.

The states and union territories whose response was sought included Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Assam, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Karnataka, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi and Chandigarh.

Amicus Curiae Ranjit Kumar stated that the court had sought responses from all the states but these states have not filed their responses on the rehabilitation of children staying in jail with their undertrial and convict mothers.


Appearing for the Union Government, additional solicitor general Altaf Ahmed said that the Centre has circulated a model prison manual among the states and requested the court to seek their response on that.


He said that the states should also respond to a prison management bill prepared by the Centre. The court asked the states to respond to these two pieces of proposed legislation.
Bureau Report