Recording the State’s submission that several measures have been undertaken to reach food to children by way of dry ration during the lockdown period, the first bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy, said: “The matter is of some importance and is urgent. Schools have remained closed for nearly a year and a half now and children cannot congregate at schools to partake of midday meals.”

“At the same time, several families, particularly those in the lowest strata, have been hard hit because of lack of employment opportunities and the like. The main meal of the day, which previously cost the parents nothing, has now to be arranged for and put on the table,” the bench held while seeking the Centre to indicate its stand by filing a report or affidavit on an urgent basis before the matter appears next, a week hence.

The court, in its order, also held that the petitioner (Citizen Consumer and Civic Action) points out that the object of the underlying statute (National Food Security Act, 2013) is to provide meals with specified nutritional content.

“The petitioner, quite reasonably, apprehends that the reaching of dry ration may not result in the child to get the entirety of the food and, in any event, what the State has to do is to provide hot meals with the appropriate nutritional content,” the court stressed.