The Supreme Court
on Thursday refused to pass any direction on a plea seeking formulation of a
scheme on setting up of community kitchens to combat hunger and malnutrition,
observing that the National Food Security Act (NFSA) and other welfare schemes
are being implemented by the Centre and states.
A bench of
Justices Bela M Trivedi and Pankaj Mithal said it was open to states and union
territories to ensure implementation of alternative welfare schemes.
"The
National Food Security Act and other welfare schemes are being implemented by
the Union of India and the states to ensure access to adequate quantity of food
at affordable prices to people. We do not propose to issue any further
direction in this regard.
"We have not
examined whether the concept of community kitchens is better or wiser
alternative available to states to achieve the objective of NFSA. Rather, we
would leave it open to states and union territories to ensure implementation of
alternative welfare schemes," the bench said.
The top court's
judgement came on a PIL filed by social activists Anun Dhawan, Ishann Singh and
Kunajan Singh seeking directions to all states and union territories to
formulate a scheme for community kitchens to combat hunger and malnutrition.
The plea had
alleged that many children under the age of five die every day due to hunger
and malnutrition and this condition was violative of various fundamental
rights, including the right to food and life of citizens.
It had also
sought a direction to the Centre for creating a national food grid for people
falling outside the purview of the public distribution scheme and issuance of
order to the National Legal Services Authority (NLSA) for formulating a scheme
to mitigate hunger-related deaths.
The plea had
referred to the state-funded community kitchens being run in Tamil Nadu, Andhra
Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Odisha, Jharkhand and Delhi that serve meals at
subsidised rates in hygienic conditions.
It had also referred
to the concepts of soup kitchen, meal centre, food kitchen or community
kitchen, in other countries, where food is offered to the hungry usually for
free or sometimes at a below market price.