Children home: Court reserves probe order

The Delhi High Court on Monday reserved its order on a bunch of pleas challenging the city government's decision to appoint an inquiry commission to probe into allegations of sexual abuse of children and death of an inmate at Arya orphanage here.

A bench of justices Pradeep Nandrajog and Pratibha Rani reserved its judgement after the counsel for various parties concluded their arguments.

The Delhi government, on February 25, had appointed an inquiry commission to probe the alleged sexual abuse of children and death of an inmate at the orphanage at Daryaganj in central Delhi.

The commission, set up under section 3 of the Commission of Inquiry Act 1954, has also been asked to examine the state of affairs of Arya Bal Grih, Arya Kanya Sadan, both in Daryaganj and Chhatrawas Chandra Arya Vidya Mandir and Chandra Arya Vidyalaya, both in East of Kailash.

During the proceeding, the city government counsel said there were sufficient materials on record against the two out of the five NGOs, for the Lieutenant Governor to order a probe into the allegations.

But it conceded there were no materials on record against the remaining three NGOs and the government took the decision to examine the affairs of all five as they are "umbrella organisations".

The government counsel said the lieutenant governor took the decision after the officials considering the matter put it before him. Referring to the notification, senior counsel Maninder Singh appearing for the NGOs questioned the alleged urgency to set up a commission of inquiry, when the government had already conducted a preliminary inquiry.

The high court had, last week, asked the city government to place the records on the basis of which the authorities had appointed an inquiry commission to probe into the allegations.

The bench had said there must be some materials on record on the basis of which the government had ordered the inquiry. The bench was hearing a bunch of petitions filed by NGOs, including Arya Anathalaya. The petitioners said that the government cannot form a commission to look into the allegations merely on the basis of media report.