The Supreme Court has asked the authorities to carry out its order in letter and spirit to preserve and protect the lives of homeless people by providing them roofs with all necessary facilities, especially in north India. The region is in the grip of intense cold waves.

A Bench of justices Dalveer Bhandari and Dipak Misra asked the Governments of the northern states to implement its order without loss of time.

The Bench said not only the cold waves but the unusual snowfall in some states like Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Punjab too have added to the trouble for the homeless and destitute to whom night shelters of permanent or temporary nature must be made available.

The remarks were made by the Bench while it was perusing the report of the inspection of the night shelters in the national capital, carried by the court-appointed commissioners and officials of the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) between January 9 and 12.