New Delhi: Taking note of pitiable condition of widows in Virandavan of Uttar Pradesh, the Supreme Court today appointed a seven-member panel to collect data on their socio-economic conditions.
A bench of Justice D K Jain directed the committee, headed by chairman of Mathura District Legal Services Authority to conduct an enumeration of the widows living in the city within eight weeks. The bench asked the committee to submit its report to it by July 25, the next date of hearing.
The bench said the committee should compile and prepare a list of widows with their respective names, ages, addresses, places of origin, reasons for being in Virandavan and whether there was any property in their or their husbands` names in their native places. The committee would also comprise of the representatives of the National Commission for woman, those from the Uttar Pradesh government, district collector, district medical officer and Mathura`s senior superintendent of police, the bench said.
The court passed the order on a plea seeking its direction to the Centre and the state government to provide shelter and other necessary facilities to the widows in the city, who have been abandoned by their family members.
The court`s direction came as per the recommendations of advocate Indira Shani who on behalf of the National Legal Services Authority suggested that the court should set up the committee for enumeration of widows in the religious town of Virandavan.
PTI