The Supreme Court on Thursday said it was not in a position to take coercive steps against states that had failed to set up panels on the issue of urban homelessness, reported PTI. “We have been told that governance is for the government and not for the courts,” said a bench comprising Justices Madan B Lokur, S Abdul Nazeer, and Deepak Gupta. “If there is no governance, we cannot do anything.”

The comments came a day after Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that “the founding fathers always wanted governance must be left to those elected to govern by the people of India”.

The bench was hearing a matter related to shelter provisions for the urban homeless. In a status report submitted in court, the central government said that many states are yet to form a committee to look into the implementation of the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Urban Livelihood Mission, while in a few others, meetings of the panel were not held.

Lawyers appearing for Bihar, Haryana, and Chhattisgarh said those three states had set up committees. Only Delhi seemed to have done something in the matter, said the bench.

On behalf of one of the petitioners, lawyer Prashant Bhushan told the court to “crack its whip” on the defaulting states. “The whip is broken,” responded the bench.

Bhushan told court that chief secretaries of the defaulting states should be asked to appear in the court and explain why they were yet to constitute the committees. Another lawyer for one of the petitioners also observed that the court should take coercive steps against such states.

“What coercive steps? The governance is for the government and not for the courts,” said the bench.

Bhushan said the erring states would respond if the court passes an order that action would be taken against them. “Somebody should be sent to jail,” he said. “Only then they will act.”

The Supreme Court gave the Centre 10 days to submit a chart on the progress made by each state, along with details of composition of the committee, its date of notification, and meetings held by the panel.

Earlier, the court had expressed its shock at the failure of states to effectively implement welfare schemes despite spending thousand of crores of rupees.