Gujarat High Court Says Municipality Commissioner, Chief Officer, Sarpanch To Be Held Liable If Any Worker Is Engaged For Manual Scavenging

The Gujarat High Court on Monday said that the Municipal Commissioner of Corporation, Chief Officer of concerned Municipality and Sarpanch of concerned Gram Panchayat will be held liable, if any worker is engaged for cleaning sewers.

The division bench of the Acting Chief Justice A.J. Desai and Justice Biren Vaishnav said:

“We make it clear that till the next date of hearing, if any of the worker whose services have been availed by any of the Municipal Corporation, any Municipality or any Gram Panchayat for cleaning sewerage in the concerned area, the Municipal Commissioner of concerned Corporation, Chief Officer of concerned Municipality and Sarpanch of concerned Gram Panchayat shall be held liable for the action since by the Government Resolution dated 21.06.2014, such activities have been banned.”

The court was hearing a PIL seeking the proper implementation of the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 and Rules made therein and further for payment of proper compensation to the workers who lost their lives due to manual scavenging.

Gujarat Government on June 21, 2014, banned the practice of manual scavenging. However, it submitted that 152 persons have lost their lives pursuant to unfortunate incident in which the deceased workers were asked to clean the sewerage by entering there into. The State further submitted that it has disbursed the amount of compensation to the legal heirs of 137 persons.

It was also submitted by the State that the authorities are trying to find out the details of the legal heirs of those deceased workers, who lost their lives in cleaning sewerage.

The court directed the State to distribute the amount of compensation as per the scheme of the Government Resolution to the legal heirs of the deceased workers before the next date of hearing. The matter is listed again on June 19.

Case Title: Manav Garima v. State of Gujarat

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