Bombay High Court: The Division Bench of Nitin Jamdar and M.M. Sathaye, JJ., directed the Department of Social Welfare to create a dedicated email address for each of the District Level Committees and Vigilance Committees and also create a Social Media handle where citizens and non-governmental organizations could report instances of manual scavenging, which the District Level Committee and Vigilance Committee could examine as this would aid in ensuring that manual scavenging did not take place.
The Court noted that the Nodal Officer, i.e., Commissioner, Social Welfare Department, Pune, in the affidavit dated 04-07-2024 stated that 36 districts were free of manual scavenging in the State of Maharashtra and certificates for the same were submitted by the Collectors to the Union Government on 02-08-2023.
Petitioners filed a note stating instances of manual scavenging, and reference was made to the query raised by the National Human Rights Commission regarding the death of certain manual scavengers in April 2024 and to other instances of sewer cleaning in April and August 2024. Petitioners contended that if no manual scavenging exists as contended by the Collectors, then why compensation was given in 81 cases as per the state record.
The Court stated that while making a statement regarding the status of manual scavenging, the State authority needs to keep in mind the definition of Manual Scavenger in Section 2(g) of the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and Their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 (‘the 2013 Act’) as interpreted by the Supreme Court in Balram Singh v. Union of India, 2023 SCC OnLine SC 1386.
The Court took note of the clarification that the report of the Collector referred only to the position of the year 2022 and not as of today, and that an inquiry would have to be made regarding the instances of manual scavenging.
The Court thus issued the following directions:
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The Department of Social Welfare shall publish the composition of all the committees – State, District and Vigilance Committees that were formed under the 2013 Act with the names of the members (except the ex officio member) on its website. The website should also contain details of the action/s taken by all the Committees under the 2013 Act except where the information was sensitive or protected by any statutory provisions regarding confidentiality and the information should be regularly updated.
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The Department of Social Welfare would also create a dedicated email address for each of the District Level Committees and Vigilance Committees. It shall also create a Social Media handle where citizens and non-governmental organizations could report instances of manual scavenging, which the District Level Committee and Vigilance Committee could examine as this would aid the Social Welfare Department in its statutory duty to ensure that manual scavenging did not take place.
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Nodal Officer, i.e., Commissioner, Social Welfare Department would issue instructions to all the Vigilance Committees in the State of Maharashtra to ensure that meetings were held on time, agendas were circulated in advance, and the outcome of the meetings and the action taken was furnished for uploading the same on the website.
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The creation of the social media handle and email address and uploading of the information on the website shall be done by the next date of hearing.
The matter would next be listed on 09-09-2024 for directions.
[Shramik Janata Sangh v. State of Maharashtra, 2024 SCC OnLine Bom 2745, decided on 20-08-2024]
Advocates who appeared in this case :
For the Petitioner: Gayatri Singh, Senior Advocate a/w Sudha Bhardwaj and Nawaz Dordi i/b Deepali Kasul.
For the Respondents: Ram Apte, Senior Advocate a/w Ajit Pitale and Harshad P. Nahata; P. P. Kakade, G.P. a/w R. A. Salunkhe, AGP; Sarang S. Aradhye a/w Gauri Velankar and Saarth Chordia and Shantanu Gurav.
