Rescued child beggars lodged at protection homes not in illegal custody: HC

Court ruling came on a father’s plea who had termed his three children’s lodging at Chandigarh protection homes illegal

Child beggars rescued by the authorities and kept at shelter homes are not in illegal custody, the Punjab and Haryana high court has held.

HC was hearing a plea from one Pabudan, whose three children, two sons and a daughter, were rescued by Chandigarh social welfare department teams from Sector 17 in April 2022. (HT File Photo)

“Contrarily the inmating of minor children at the respective places (shelter homes)...becomes statutorily completely protected, as it becomes imbued with a holistic purpose of weaning them from indulging in any misdemeanour, to ensure their upkeep besides to educate them, which otherwise may not have become purveyed to them, given the prima facie indigence of their parents,” the bench of justice Sureshwar Thakur said.

The court was hearing a plea from one Pabudan, whose three children, two sons and a daughter, were rescued by Chandigarh social welfare department teams from Sector 17 in April 2022. The two boys thereafter were shifted to Snehalaya, Maloya, and the minor girl to Ashiana, Sector 15.

The father had filed a plea claiming that he had valid right to ask for the children’s retrieval, being their biological father and had termed their lodging at protection homes illegal.

UT had told the court that the minor children were indulging in begging and their parents were abetting it. Hence, the children become “children in need of care and protection” as defined under Section 2 (14) of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 and were rescued by the authorities.

The court found that the father of the minor children could not produce any evidence in respect of his financial empowerments and observed that in view of this it can’t be assumed that he will be able to provide best care to the children.

“...yet the children are not to be deprived of… parental love and affection, as the above bestowments are also imperatively necessary for the grooming of their personalities, besides for not making them orphans, despite their parents being alive, irrespective of their financial indigence,” the court observed, while ordering the release of the children from protection homes after their father stated that he intended to shift to his native place in Rajasthan.

The court ordered that the authorities in Chandigarh to arrange the family’s transportation to Rajasthan at their cost.

Since the family does not have a permanent dwelling there as well, they will be lodged at central government quarters at government expense, as per the court order. Arrangement for their food would also be made by the authorities, the court said, adding that these arrangements will continue till the time the family is provided housing under government’s rehabilitation scheme for such families.