New Delhi, August 8

Begging in the national capital will no more be treated as an offence with the Delhi High Court quashing the legal provisions that criminalise it, holding that people beg on streets not because of their wish but as a “last resort” to meet their needs.

Criminalising begging violates the most fundamental rights of some of the most vulnerable people in our society, the court said, as it blamed the state for not being able to ensure even the bare essentials of the right to life to all its citizens.

A Bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar said the state cannot fail to do its duty to provide a decent life to its citizens and add insult to injury by arresting, detaining and imprisoning those who beg in search for essentials of bare survival, which is even below sustenance.

A person who is compelled to beg cannot be faulted for such actions in these circumstances and any legislation penalising them was in the teeth of Article 21 (protection of life and liberty).

The Bench said the provisions of the Bombay Prevention of Begging Act, 1959, which treats begging as an offence, cannot stand constitutional scrutiny and deserved to be struck down. Currently, there is no Central law on begging and destitution. — PTI

‘Poverty root cause’

"If we want to eradicate begging, artificial means will not suffice. A move to criminalise them will make them invisible without addressing the root cause — poverty" Delhi HC Bench