Archive · 1 Aug 2025
Allahabad HC Orders Hot Cooked Food in ICDS Program
Imagine the government has a program to help kids and pregnant women get healthy food.
Some people thought the program wasn't working right, so they went to court.
The court agreed that the program should give out hot, cooked meals and food to take home, like it was supposed to.
The government was giving out dry food instead, which the court said wasn't good enough.
The court wants the program to really help people, and giving them proper food is the best way to do that.
Allahabad HC directs UP government to provide hot cooked food and take-home food.
The court ruled against the current dry nutrition model used in the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS).
The ruling comes after multiple Public Interest Litigations (PILs) challenged the government's approach.
PILs argued the dry nutrition approach violated the scheme's original rules.
The court emphasized that the ICDS scheme must be implemented in its "true sense".
- Who
- Allahabad High Court and Uttar Pradesh government.
- What
- Allahabad HC directed the UP government to distribute hot cooked food and take-home food under the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS).
- When
- The judgment was given on Friday.
- Where
- Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court.
- Why
- To effectively tackle the problem of malnutrition among the beneficiaries of ICDS.
Petitioners
UP Government
Food Distribution Method
Petitioners
The dry nutrition model violates the original rules of the ICDS scheme which mandate hot cooked meals and take-home food.
UP Government
The government's defense was that the new system would provide better local-level nutrition and that the PILs were not legally maintainable.
- Court
- Allahabad High Court
- Judges
- A R Masoodi and Subhash Vidyarthi
- Scheme
- Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS)
- Beneficiaries
- Children up to six years of age, pregnant and lactating women
- Issue
- Distribution of food under ICDS