[LIVE UPDATES] Supreme Court Hearing On Plight Of Migrant Workers (Suo Motu)

Senior Advocate Prabhu Patil for NHRC

SG interjects, says the authority must wait for the reply on behalf of the Railway Ministry.

Jaising - “We have done enough injustice to these people. These people are described as internally displaced people internationally. These people have migrated under coercion. The coercion was “no shelter”.”

IJ continues, “This is the only way to get done with backlog of people waiting to travel. Next we need to see what can be done for those who have already paid for such travels.”

Senior Advocate Indira Jaising now begins submissions.

“Demand is being underreported and the reason for this is that the registration process is in English. There should be nothing required except for basics for registration. Name, Aadhaar etc.”

Bhushan J. - “This is not an adverserial litigation”

Sibal, “It’s not My Lords, that is why I am not making adverserial submissions. I did not do it on the first say either.”

Sibal, “A decentralised portal for registration is paramount. This will enunciate data. What has happened, has happened. We’re here to facilitate the process. To help our people. We must make sure that our systems are in place. In future if this happens, we will know what to do”.

Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal now on screen. Appears for two NGO’s who are intervenors. Says an exhaustive affidavit laying out the minimum standards for safeguards must come on record.

Bhushan J - okay we’ll direct it.

Advocate Sibo Shankar Mishra for State of Odisha - We have taken care of at least 20,000 #migrantworkers. We are taking extra care and precautions because a lot of migrants are travelling back to their home states via our states.

Navadgi, “Less than a lakh will be in the state now, if 15 days given, we'll do the needful. The number of migrants who want to leave has drastically come down. Yesterday, we had 1 lakh registrations, only 100 came.”

Counsel for State of Karnataka Mr. Navadgi- 3.7 lakh + #migrantworkers transported. We have also formulated a help/desk called “sewa sindhu”- this is open 24/7. As suggested by my Lords, 15 days time is suitable. We will be doing the needful. Less than 1 lakh will be in State now