MUMBAI: In a relief for three widows of manual scavengers who died in December 2019, Bombay high court on Friday directed the district collector to pay Rs 10 lakh compensation to each within four weeks after terming the case as “eye-opening”.
The workers had died in December 2019 while cleaning a septic tank at Govandi’s Morya Housing Society.
A bench of Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice Madhav Jamdar passed the interim order after lawyer Isha Singh argued that even though the deaths had taken place as a consequence of a housing society employing individuals as manual scavengers, the state was strictly liable and responsible for providing compensation to the families as the burden of eradicating manual scavenging in accordance with Article 17 of the Constitution (abolition of untouchability) was on the government.
She buttressed her submissions by citing a Supreme Court order in Safai Karamchari Andolan versus Union of India case of 2014 and its clarification issued in 2016 that the government must provide Rs 10 lakh to the families of every person who has lost their life in sewerage work.
The three women who petitioned HC were Bani Debnath, Neeta Kalshekar and Vimla Chorotiya.
Government pleader Poornima Kantharia submitted that in addition to compensation, the government was further willing to rehabilitate the petitioners in accordance with Section 13 of the Prohibition of Employment of Manual Scavengers Act, 2013, by providing their children scholarships and highlighted how the petitioners would be included in the list of manual scavengers. She informed the court in accordance with its instructions, she had brought three cheques of Rs 1.25 lakh each for the petitioners. The state had said the builder of the premises deposited Rs 3.75 lakh with the government as part of compensation.
The division bench directed the office of the collector to pay Rs 10 lakh to each petitioner within four weeks, with the liberty to recover the amount from the private employers.
The court noted it would examine whether the government resolution regarding payment of compensation to manual scavengers is in accordance with the directions of the apex court. The detailed order will be released later. The next date is October 18.
