PAPPA Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IT is alleged in the applications that the petitioner, a widow having seven children, was arrested on 15th February, 1991 in connection with FIR No. 59/81 under sections 20, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act. In para 8 of the application, being Cr. M. 2144/93, it is stated that the petitioner is in custody for the last more than two and a half years and her children are being neglected as there is no one to took after them. In the application it is prayed that the State should be directed to provide food, shelter and education of her children.

(2.) IN a situation like this, where children of a single parent are left alone due to the incarceration of the parent, it is the bounden duty of the State to provide for such children, who have no one even to wipe their tears, respond to their smiles or to prevent them from taking to wayward life. These children cannot be forgotten and abandoned It they are being deprived of the hands which feed, protect and love them, it will not be just fair and reasonable to leave them without securing for them, the basic necessities of life including food, education and shelter. What will happen to the children who see a heartless world around them in which they are not wanted and they do not receive anything from the society except deprivation, should be the concern of the State.

(3.) ARTICLE 23 of the Constitution prohibits traffic in human beings and beggar, and other similar types of forced labour. Contravention of this provision attracts penal punishment. A child whose parent has been packed off to jail will have to fend for himself owing to hunger and poverty. This will compel him to undertake all sorts of work. Even undignified and dehaumanising labour can be forced upon him because of impoverishment or application of physical force. If the child is forced into such a situation by the State, it must become a provider for the child.