Care for the Elderly: Top Court grants four more weeks to states to respond to plea

NATIONAL | Sept 08, 2020:

The Supreme Court today granted another four weeks' time to the states, to file their responses on a plea seeking directions to provide masks and sanitisers to the elderly amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

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The matter came up for hearing before a bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan. The Bench, in its August 4 order, had directed that all eligible old age persons should be regularly paid pension and states should provide them necessary medicines, masks, sanitisers and other essential goods in wake of the pandemic.

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The bench, also comprising Justices R S Reddy and M R Shah, was hearing a plea filed by former union minister and senior advocate Ashwani Kumar who has sought directions saying elderly people need more care and protection in this time of the pandemic.

During the hearing conducted through video-conferencing, Kumar told the bench that only some states including Odisha and Punjab have responded to the petition so far.