VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Wednesday refused to intervene in the orders issued by the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) awarding compensation of `8 lakh to the family of a child, who died after consuming an egg served at an Anganwadi centre.
A child died after eating an egg served at Gallepalli Anganwadi centre in Kuppam municipality of Chittoor district in February 2022. The SHRC took cognisance of the incident based on media reports and awarded a compensation of `8 lahks to the family of the victim. The Anganwadi teacher and officials of the women and child welfare department were asked to pay the compensation. The teacher and the officials filed a petition in the High Court challenging the SHRC orders.
The bench of Chief Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and Justice N Jayasurya heard the petition and felt that such a petition would bring disrepute to the government. The bench opined that the Anganwadi teacher and the women and child welfare department officials should take responsibility for the untoward incident.
An autopsy would have been conducted soon after the death of the child to ascertain the cause and there is no point in conducting postmortem on the body now, it observed. The bench concurred with the compensation awarded by the SHRC and struck down the petition.