The Supreme Court on Wednesday slammed Karnataka and 11 other states for failing to respond to the questions on widow welfare schemes.
"There is no use in making grand statements and submissions in favour of gender justice while the governments of states and the Union Territories do not even have five minutes time to respond to the Ministry of Women and Child Development. This absence of concern is not going to take forward the rights of women in this country," a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta, said.
The court imposed Rs two lakh each as cost on Karnataka and other states of Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Mizoram, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, J&K, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Arunachal Pradesh and Dadra and Nagar Haveli.
"We are extremely pained to note from a reading of the affidavit and complete lack of a positive response from the state governments / UTs, for the welfare of women," the bench noted, after going through the Centre's response.
The court also imposed Rs one lakh each as cost on those states which filed incomplete response to the Centre's query sent on the basis of the directions issued by the bench on August 11 and October 9, for spelling out steps taken by them.
It warned the states that chief secretary would be called for personal appearance if they failed further to file their responses within three weeks. The court also sought comments from the states on a scheme prepared by the National Legal Services Authority, National Commission for Women and the central government, for ensuring justice to widows living in shelter homes.