The report, submitted by a High Court official who visited the premises on the court's order on April 26, 1999 apparently found the premises in an untidy and unhygienic state. The toilets were stated to be dirty, stinking and giving off a repulsive odour, while food was strewn across the halls in the home. The inmates, it is believed, told the official the food given to them twice a day was inedible, and mostly thrown away. The place, the inmates complained, were full of mosquitoes and rats and pretty unliveable.

The division bench of Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal and Justice S H Kapadia werehearing a public interest petition filed by Prerna, which works with the women and their children in the red-light areas of Kamathipura, that claimed that women rescued by police in March this year were living in appalling conditions in Kasturba Sadan.

The division bench had, during an earlier hearing, directed that a court official would pay a surprise visit to the home and present an enquiry report to HC. Following this, an HC official of the rank of assistant prothonotary had visited the home and submitted the report to the division bench.

Apparently, when the HC emissary first visited the home on April 24, the Kasturba Mahila Vasatigriha, Deonar, which had around 20 inmates was spic and span with the in-charge of the home showing the official around. The official had at that time found that everything was in order, with clean bathrooms and water available. The inmates too were mouthing praises for the home. However, during the second visit, which exposed the poor administration of the place, theinmates apparently told the court's representative that they were aware of the first visit and so had cleaned up the place.

Prerna had in its petition claimed that some minor girls rescued by police in a raid at Jumna Mansion on March 11, 1999 were eventually placed by the Juvenile Welfare Board in Kasturba Sadan in ``appalling conditions''. The petitioners later along with other NGOs like Prayas, a cell of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, with the approval of officials of the Sadan and the department of Women and Child Welfare had interviewed the girls. Most of the girls were found to be victims from rural areas of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. The girls told the social organisations they did not wish to go back to their brothels but the conditions of the home were unbearable.

In its petition, Prerna pointed out that the inmates had insufficient toilets and bathrooms which were dirty and unhygienic. The inmates faced a shortage of water, had no medical facilities and hadfound worms in their food. It claimed that the dinner to the girls was sometimes served at 3 or 4 pm. It pointed out that the girls managed to get biscuits, fruits, gutkhas, tobacco etc that kept them from starving but that indicated they had continued access to perpetrators of the sex trade.

The voluntary organisation had prayed that the state be directed to frame a scheme for keeping the girls in a situation where they could have access to medicare, education, vocational training, counselling, food and nutrition, good sanitation and healthy environment.