SC to hold chief secy accountable for hunger death

The bench, including Justice Y.K. Sabharwal and Justice Arijit Pasayat, said: ‘‘If the commissioners report to the satisfaction of the court that starvation deaths have taken place, the court will be justified in presuming that court orders have not been implemented and the chief secretary of the state or administrator of the UT will be held responsible.’’

On May 8, the court had directed the governments to implement various poverty-alleviation schemes and had appointed former planning secretary N.C. Saxena and former rural development secretary S.R. Shankaran as court commissioners to monitor implementation of the scheme and submit a report.

The order was passed by the bench on a petition filed by the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) seeking implementation of poverty-alleviation schemes and the food for work programme.

Attorney General Soli J. Sorabjee contended that there was no shortage of foodgrain in the country and that in many cases foodgrain allocated to states had not even been lifted by them, specially in the case of Rajasthan. The bench told the counsel for Rajasthan, Abhisek Manu Singhvi, that ‘‘your CM had no business to ask for more foodgrain when what was given free of cost by the centre was not lifted’’.

‘‘Unfortunately every litigation has become personal interest oriented,’’ the bench observed referring to the litigation between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu over Cauvery. The bench gave a last opportunity to the chief secretaries to give publicity within eight weeks to directions of the court regarding implementation of various programmes and schemes.