Lucknow, Feb 21 (IANS): The Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court has expressed serious displeasure over the death of four girls in the Government Children Protection Home in the state capital.

The bench has directed principal secretary of women and child development to file the counter affidavit in the matter within next three weeks.

Passing the order, a bench of Justice D.K. Upadhyay and Justice Subhash Vidyarthi said, "The respondents shall clearly indicate steps which are envisaged to be taken at their end to ensure that such incidents do not happen in the future in the children protection homes throughout the state."

The bench passed the order on a PIL moved by Shiv Nath Mishra based on a newspaper report which reported the deaths of the girls in the government home.

"The facts pleaded in this petition are very serious and prima facie depict unpardonable callousness on the part of the state authorities as they appear to have utterly failed in discharge of their duty which has resulted in the death of four girl children," observed the bench in its order.