The Bombay high court on Tuesday asked the public works department (PWD) to try and complete reconstruction of the children's home/observation home in Dongri, Umerkhadi within a year. The complex was evacuated on Children's Day last year as it was in a dilapidated condition.
The Bombay high court on Tuesday asked the public works department (PWD) to try and complete reconstruction of the children's home/observation home in Dongri, Umerkhadi within a year. The complex was evacuated on Children's Day last year as it was in a dilapidated condition.
More than 300 children from the shelter home were shifted to a shelter in Mahim after the high court took suo moto cognisance of two letters by magistrates, pointing out the building's state of utter disrepair.
A division bench of justices VM Kanade and Revati Mohite-Dere has asked the government to submit within two weeks an action plan to complete the reconstruction in a year. The HC has also asked the chief metropolitan magistrate (CMM) to submit a report on the condition of the Mahim building.
The government pleader informed the HC that the metropolitan magistrate who conducts hearings in juvenile cases cannot take up hearings in the Mahim building as it is not conducive for that. However, there is another building adjacent to it that can be used by the magistrate to conduct hearings.
The HC has asked the CMM to scrutinise this other building and report whether it is appropriate for conducting hearings.
The HC had taken suo moto cognisance of two letters – one written by principal judge Sangitrao Patil of the city civil and sessions court to A P Kurhekar, registrar (inspection) at the HC; the other by judicial officer A S Shende.
Patil's letter, dated November 12, said that during a visit to the home, Shende had noticed that the building in which the children resided might collapse at any moment and that their lives were in danger. The letter added that the children needed to be shifted.
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