HC sets three-month deadline for govt. to set up night shelters for urban homeless

Asks BBMP to set up at least 42 shelters within its limits

Expressing shock over setting up of only a meagre number of night shelters for urban homeless persons as against the required number of shelters, the High Court of Karnataka on Thursday set a deadline of three months to set up at least 42 night shelters within the limits of the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). The court also directed the government to set up the remaining 32 night shelters in the BBMP limits within six months while giving three months to set up night shelters in other urban areas of the State as per the requirement. A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Suraj Govindaraj ppassed the interim order on a PIL petition filed by People’s Union for Civil Liberties-Karnataka. The Bench, from the statement filed by the State government, noticed that in the government should have set up 166 night shelters across the State at the rate of one night shelter per lakh of population as per the government’s commitment made before the apex court.