HC raps state government for taking rigid stand on abandoned children

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Thursday rapped the state government for taking a rigid stand which discriminates between orphaned and abandoned children and denies reservations to the latter as one or both their parents are alive

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Thursday rapped the state government for taking a rigid stand which discriminates between orphaned and abandoned children and denies reservations to the latter as one or both their parents are alive.

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The court observed that abandoned children, who had no support, become the responsibility of the state and it could not shirk it.

After going through the affidavit of the state, which reiterated its stand that it was only responsible for the upbringing and welfare of orphaned children, the bench said it will pass orders on the issue on March 31.

The HC made the remarks while hearing the petition of two women, who were abandoned in their childhood by their biological parents, and hence, were seeking an orphan certificate to pursue medical education, as orphan certificates are mandatory for availing reservation provided to orphans in medical education.

In the previous hearing, the division bench of justice Gautam Patel and justice Neela Gokhale was informed by the counsel for the Child Welfare Committee that the required certificates had been issued.

The bench had, however, sought to know the stand of the state government about orphaned and abandoned children and hence, directed the additional government pleader to get the state to file an affidavit in this regard.

After going through the affidavit on Thursday which reiterated that the state was responsible only for orphaned or surrendered children and not abandoned children, the bench was aghast and said, “We will unabashedly say this, what this government is asking us to believe is that they are giving up abandoned children as they are not orphans or are not surrendered. You show us from any lexicon, law general or specific, how is there a difference? What is the qualitative difference,” the bench asked the government pleader.

The court said in either case the child was parentless and that should be the factor for determining whether the child deserved to be given the benefit of reservation.

“For the purpose of horizontal reservation, can you meaningfully distinguish between abandoned, surrendered or orphaned child? In law or logic, what is the difference?” noted the court and said that it had got what it was looking for and hence would pass orders to address the specific issue of the distinction among parentless children which the state government was following.

The petition filed by an NGO Nest India Foundation through advocate Abhinav Chandrachud stated that the two women had been taken care of by the foundation since their parents had abandoned them and as they aspired to become doctors, they needed an abandoned children certificate on the lines of orphaned children. However, the CWC had denied the same and hence, the foundation had approached the HC on behalf of the women.