The Madras High Court Bench here on Thursday reserved its judgement on a joint writ petition filed by 86 inmates of a home for girls run by Tiruchi-based Mose Ministries, which has been in the news since 2015 for running the home without authorisation, accusing the government officials of not setting them free despite an undertaking given to the court in November last to release all those who had completed 18 years of age.
A Division Bench of Justices T.S. Sivagnanam and P. Velmurugan deferred their verdict without mentioning a date after hearing elaborate arguments advance by Senior Counsel Isaac Mohanlal representing the petitioners.
The Senior Counsel told the court that two more girls had attained majority after the filing of the writ petition and at present 88 of the 89 inmates, but for one girl who would attain majority in August, were majors.
When Mr. Justice Sivagnanam wanted to know how was the age of the inmates determined, the counsel said that it was calculated on the basis of the birth dates informed to the administrators of the home when the parents of the girls, mostly hailing from Usilampatti near here, had abandoned their just born babies due to the evil practice of female infanticide widely prevalent in the locality about two decades ago.
In their affidavit, the petitioners had hailed Pastor Gideon Jacob, the administrator of the home, for having saved them from the jaws of death and taking good care of them since they were abandoned. They accused the government officials, who were directed by another Division Bench of the High Court in December 2015 to take over the administration, of ill-treating them and not providing even basic facilities.
“Provisions were scarce and we, at times, had to wait for weeks together for medical treatment even though some of the inmates were writhing in pain and distress.
Most of our requests were brushed aside by the authorities and a part of the girls [34] were never visited or cared for in any way,” the 86 inmates stated in their affidavit, and urged the court to set them free from the clutches of the court-appointed committee.
