Supreme Court Fines Odisha For Absence Of Community Kitchens

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday imposed additional cost of Rs 5 lakh on five states namely: Delhi, Maharashtra, Odisha, Goa and Manipur.

Earlier the states had failed to pay a Rs 5 Lakh fine imposed on them. They had not complied with its direction to file their affidavits on a PIL.

The PIL had been filed seeking setting up of community kitchens across the country.

A bench headed by Justice N.V. Ramana refused to entertain a plea of some state governments to wave off the fine.

Attorney General K.K. Venugopal representing the Centre, said an affidavit has already been filed. Another affidavit will be filed soon with respect to the scheme in the country.

The Apex court has scheduled the matter for further hearing on April 8.

Last week, the top court observed that only 7 states/UTs have filed affidavits, in connection with food security and community kitchens.

The states and UTs are: Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Karnataka, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Nagaland and Jammu & Kashmir.