Bombay HC irked with Maha govt's stand over no quota benefits for abandoned kids

The Bombay High Court on Thursday was irked with the Maharashtra governments persistent stand that the reservation benefits given to orphans cannot be extended to abandoned children The state should instead be working as a protective umbrella for such kids it saidThe state government offers one per cent reservation in education to orphaned childrenHowever it refused to extend such a benefit to children who have been abandoned by their parents as they are not orphaned as per the definition of the termA division bench of Justices Gautam Patel and Neela Gokhale had taken up the issue after a petition was filed by a citybased NGO seeking reservation for two girls abandoned by their parentsAfter being slammed by the court the government had agreed to provide orphan certificates to the two girls so that they could seek reservation but had clarified that its stand was that there was a difference between orphaned and abandoned childrenIrked with this stand the court said in every single matter the government operates with contradictionWhy this attitude of we have to combatwe have to oppose When will this government wake up to the realisation that it is not the only one right and is most often wrong the court saidAlso Read Former Maharashtra minister Hasan Mushrif moves Bombay HC against ED caseThe bench also expressed its anguish at the affidavit filed by Sharad Ahire joint secretary of the Women and Child Development Department justifying the governments standThe bench said the affidavit was scurrilous and reprehensibleThe affidavit had said that parentsguardians abandon or surrender their child intentionally or deliberately to a childcare institute and misuse the Juvenile Justice Care and Protection of Children Act 2015 so that schooling boarding lodging and all other facilities are providedThe court questioned if the government understood under what dire circumstances a parent abandons a childThe gender may hinder me from understanding the plight of a mother abandoning a child Even as a father it is unimaginable Justice Patel saidThe court added that the state government ought to act as a protective umbrella for all such children instead of creating a distinction between orphaned and abandoned childrenThe court said it would pass its judgment on the issue on March 31This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever