Delhi High Court: The Division Bench of Satish Chandra Sharma, C.J., and Tushar Rao Gedela, J., noted that in many Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (‘DUSIB’) Shelter Homes, there was an issue of security, and the Shelter Homes were being occupied by persons who were ineligible to occupy such Shelter Homes. Thus, the Court directed Chief Secretary of Government of Delhi to undertake a security and social audit of all DUSIB Shelter Homes.
In the present case, Principal Secretary (Finance), Government of Delhi submitted that appropriate sanction had been granted in the matter for payment of dues to Akshaya Patra Foundation (‘the Foundation’) up to March 2024 and all pending dues to the Foundation would be cleared immediately. The Court noted that the Foundation was supplying food to the shelter homes managed by DUSIB.
The Court in its order dated 26-07-2023 noted that there was a need to streamline the process of supplying food to DUSIB Shelter Homes by taking appropriate steps i.e., by issuing tenders/or any other appropriate mechanism. The Court also noted that Standing Counsel for Government of Delhi submitted that the Government of Delhi shall be taking a decision positively within six weeks from the date of this order, for streamlining the process of supply of meals to DUSIB Shelter Homes and the payment mechanism for such supplies to ensure timely payment to the suppliers.
The Court further noted that in many DUSIB Shelter Homes, there was an issue of security, and the Shelter Homes were being occupied by persons who were ineligible to occupy such Shelter Homes. Thus, the Court opined that in view of the same, a security and social audit had become necessary to collect quantifiable data in respect of these Shelter Homes. The Court therefore directed Chief Secretary of Government of Delhi to undertake a security and social audit of all DUSIB Shelter Homes to ensure that the Shelter Homes established by DUSIB were occupied by persons who were eligible to occupy the same and not by any other persons.
The matter would next be listed on 22-01-2024.
[Court on its own Motion v. State (NCT of Delhi), 2023 SCC OnLine Del 7259, Order dated 06-11-2023]
Advocates who appeared in this case :
For the Petitioner: Dayan Krishnan, Senior Advocate (Amicus Curiae); Sukrit Seth, Shreedhar, Sanjeevi Seshadri, Advocates
For the Respondent: Santosh Kumar Tripathi, Standing Counsel; Yoginder Handoo, Special Counsel; Arun Panwar, Pradyumn Rao, Utkarsh Singh, Kartik Sharma, Prashansa Sharma, Rishabh Srivastava, Ashwin Kataria, Jayant Saini, Kunal Verma, Vipul Agarwal, Sooraj Sharma, Waheb Hussaini, Dibsha Nanda, Parvinder Chauhan, Akriti Garg, Advocates; Vijay Maggo, Law Officer; Pranav Siroha, LA
