The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the Centre to evict armed forces and paramilitary forces from schools and hostels in Assam and Manipur within two months.
A bench headed by Justice B. Sudarshan Reddy gave the directions after the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights
(NCPCR) informed SC that children from the north-eastern states were leaving their home states in search of education and were getting involved in trafficking.
NCPCR claimed children were forced to run away as their schools were taken over by the armed forces.
After reading the report, the bench ordered the home ministry to ensure that schools and hostels are free of army and paramilitary forces and asked the human resource and development ministry to find out the list of schools occupied by the forces in the two states.
Further, the bench asked the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region to hold meetings with the seven north eastern states on various aspects of development.
The bench also asked Manipur, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka to respond to the NCPCR's recommendation to shut down unregistered charitable houses running schools and hostels. It asked the states to file affidavits in response to the commission’s suggestions.
The court also accepted the NCPCR's request to retain the authority to review the matter with the state government.