The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Tamil Nadu government to explain how 35 children in a government-run home at Royapuram in Chennai tested COVID-19 positive despite the court’s express orders on April 3 to take care of children in protection and foster homes across the country.

Taking cognisance of news reports, a Bench led by Justice L. Nageswara Rao ordered the State’s Health Secretary to file a report on “why precautions were not taken”.

The State has to also brief the court on the status of the children affected by the disease and those who have not been. The government should come clean on what preventive action has been taken so far.

The court listed the case for hearing Tamil Nadu’s report on June 15.

Justice Rao orally observed that it had come to the notice of the court that some of the States were not implementing its April 3 order.

The court decided to circulate a questionnaire based on the directions made in the April 3 order to all States/Juvenile Justice Committees of High Courts for feedback on precautions taken in children protection homes. The court said Juvenile Justice Committees had to ensure States respond to questionnaire. On this regard, the court listed the case for further hearing on July 6.

In a series of directions on April 6, the court had also ordered that Juvenile Justice Boards (JJBs) across the country should take steps to release children alleged to be in conflict with law on bail, unless there were clear and valid reasons, in light of the spread of COVID-19 pandemic.

A Bench led by Justice L. Nageswara Rao had taken suo motu cognisance of the issue. It had directed JJBs and children’s courts to “proactively consider whether a child or children should be kept in the CCI [Child Care Institution] considering the best interest, health and safety concerns”.

It had ordered video conferencing or online sittings for the speedy disposal of juvenile cases. The court had also ordered counselling services to be provided for children in observation homes.

“It is important to consider that violence, including sexual violence, may be exacerbated in contexts of anxiety and stress produced by lockdown and fear of the disease. JJBs would need to monitor the situation in the observation homes on a regular basis,” the court had ordered then.