The Supreme Court has said that beggars’ homes maintained by the state are not acts of “discretionary charity”, and that their administration must reflect constitutional morality.

A bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan, in a judgement delivered on Friday, issued a series of directions to all states and Union Territories to ensure dignified living conditions at such facilities within six months.

The court was hearing a case linked to an incident from 2000 at a beggars’ home in Delhi where contaminated water caused a cholera and gastroenteritis outbreak, leading to multiple deaths and widespread illness.

The court said that the failure to ensure humane conditions in such homes does not merely amount to maladministration but constitutes a “constitutional breach of the fundamental right to life with dignity”.

The bench noted that constitutional protections such as the right to live with dignity are available even to prisoners. It said that these rights, therefore, must apply to those living in beggars’ homes, who are “not offenders at all”.

“Many are victims of structural poverty, mental illness, abandonment, domestic violence, caste discrimination, or social exclusion,” the bench said.

It added that the state’s administration must reflect the values of constitutional morality: ensuring liberty, privacy, bodily autonomy and dignified living conditions.

These directions issued by the Supreme Court include mandatory medical screening within 24 hours of admission, monthly health check-ups and setting up disease surveillance systems.

It also directed states and Union Territories to ensure clean drinking water, working toilets, proper drainage and regular pest control at these facilities, among other directions.

The bench added that children found begging must be sent to child welfare institutions, not beggars’ homes.

The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment was directed to frame and notify model guidelines along these directions within three months.

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