Supreme Court Directs States/UTs To Issue Ration Cards To 8 Crore Unorganised Sector Workers Registered Under E-Shram Portal

The bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah passed this order in an application filed by activists Harsh Mander, Anjali Bharadwaj, and Jagdeep Chhokar alleging non-compliance by the union and certain states with the top court's directions issued in 2021 on dry rations and open community kitchens for migrant workers. In its 2021 order, the Court said that States, while providing dry ration, shall not insist on an identity card for those migrant laborers who do not possess it for the time being. Further, on self-declaration made by the stranded migrant laborers, a dry ration will be given to them.

Taking note of this, last April, the Bench of Justices M.R. Shah and Ahsanuddin Amanullah directed state governments to grant ration cards to migrant or unorganized workers who do not have them but are registered on the center's e-Shram portal within three months. This portal is primarily for enrollment, registration, collection, and identification of the required data of all unorganized workers.

On March 19, the petitioners submitted that out of 28.60 registrants on eShram, 20.63 crores have been registered on ration card data thus leaving approximately 8 crores registrants who have not been issued ration cards so far though such an order was issued by this Court almost a year ago.

Thus, to ensure the compliance of its order, the Court also specifically mentioned that the eKYC of all 8 crore ration cardholders that are required to be updated must not come in the way of the issuance of ration cards.

"In the first instance, it is deemed appropriate to direct the concerned State Governments/Union Territories to issue ration cards to the remaining registrants on eShram portal who do not possess any ration card so far. On its part, Union of India may continue the exercise of completion of the e-KYC, procedure in terms of the affidavit dated 12th February, 2024 particularly, para 6 thereof. In our opinion both the exercise can continue contemporaneously so that all the data is compiled and ration cards can be issued to the unregistered migrants/unorganized workers, as per their eligibility and in accordance with the prescribed procedure," the Court ordered.

The Court directed the States/UTs to complete the exercise within 2 months and furnish compliance affidavits to the counsel appearing for the Union. The State Governments/Union Territories shall continue the said exercise notwithstanding the mandate of Section 3(2) of the National Food Security Act, 2013, the Court clarified.

It may also be noted that the present application also included the fact that quotas under the Act have not been revised since the 2011 census despite the increase in population. Taking note of this, the Bench of Justices M.R. Shah and B.V. Nagarathna, in 2022, asked the Union Government to come up with a scheme/policy to ensure that the benefits under the Act are not restricted as per the 2011 census.

In this regard, it was submitted on March 19 that coverage continues to be based on the 2011 census, even though the population has increased. Thus, more than ten crore people have been excluded from the food security net. As coverage has not been increased, most states have exhausted their quotas for ration card beneficiaries under the Act and are unable to issue new cards. 

Taking note of this, the Court clearly directed that ration cards must be issued irrespective of the quotas defined in the Act. Thus, States and UTs are directed to issue ration cards to the additional eight crore people notwithstanding their quota limit as defined under the Act.

Case: In Re Problems and Miseries of Migrant Labourers

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