SC transfers all cases related to Bihar shelter homes to CBI

In a big setback to Nitish Kumar's Bihar government, the Supreme Court today transferred 16 cases related to Bihar shelter homes to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Denying more time to Bihar government for investigation, the apex court ordered CBI to look into the grave concerns raised by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) report in Bihar shelter homes.

CBI is already investigating the Muzaffarpur shelter home case, in which it is expected to file a charge sheet by December 7, the court was told.

The apex court had yesterday heavily criticised Bihar government for its "very shameful" and "inhuman"conduct and not taking appropriate actions.


A bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur said the state was "very soft" and "very selective" in registering FIRs against the perpetrators and asked the Bihar government whether these children were not the citizens of this country.

The apex court also asked the counsel appearing for the Bihar government as to why FIRs have not been lodged under section 377 (unnatural offences) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) despite there being allegations that children were sodomised at the shelter homes.

"What are you doing? This is very shameful. You may have filed a detailed affidavit (in the court) but if a child is sodomised, you cannot say that it is nothing. How can you do this? This is inhuman," the bench, also comprising justices S A Nazeer and Deepak Gupta, told the state's counsel.

During the hearing yesterday, Justice Gupta observed, "Every time I read this file, I am hit by the tragedy of the case. It is tragic."

The bench said after going through the allegations and the manner in which state police was dealing with them, "We are of the view that the state police is not doing its job as is expected."

The court also said it was "unfortunate" that despite the report by TISS indicating financial irregularities in some of the shelter homes, no FIR has been lodged regarding this.

The court also said that as per TISS report, there were 17 shelter homes where the allegations were of grave nature.

When the state's counsel said seven shelter homes were found to be in good condition in Bihar, the bench said "Seven out of around 110."

"Are we doing any favour to these children? Why cannot every shelter hoem be good. Why you should not do this? Are these children not citizens of this country?," the bench said.

(Inputs from PTI)