Supreme Court to hear plea seeking setting up of community kitchens across country to battle hunger

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to list for hearing a plea seeking directions to all states and Union territories to formulate a scheme for setting up community kitchens across the country to combat hunger and malnutrition. A Bench of Chief Justice NV Ramana and Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli posted the matter for hearing to 27 October after lawyer Ashima Mandla mentioned the matter for urgent hearing. The advocate said that the issue becomes more important in view of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in the country.

 The plea claimed “69 percent of children under the age of five die every day due to hunger and malnutrition” and said, “this condition was violative of various fundamental rights, including the right to food and the life of citizens”.

The Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by social activists Anun Dhawan, Ishann Singh, and Kunajan Singh had sought a direction to the Centre for creating a national food grid for people falling outside the purview of the public distribution scheme. The plea referred to the state-funded community kitchens being run in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Odisha, Jharkhand, and Delhi that serve meals at subsidised rates in hygienic conditions. On 17 February, 2020, the apex court had asked Delhi, Maharashtra, Manipur, Odisha, and Goa to deposit an additional cost of Rs 10 lakh each as they failed to pay Rs 5 lakh each imposed on them earlier for failing to file an affidavit on steps being taken to formulate a scheme for community kitchens for the poor.