The Madras High Court Bench here has dismissed a public interest litigation petition filed jointly by seven different associations for labourers seeking effective implementation of Sections 3 and 16 of the Tamil Nadu Manual Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Work) Act, 1982 and the rules framed thereunder.
A Division Bench of Justices S. Nagamuthu and M.V. Muralidaran closed the case after recording the submissions made by Commissioner of Labour, in his counter affidavit, that the State was a pioneer in providing social security and extending welfare assistance to manual workers as specified in the schedule to the 1982 Act.
The Commissioner said the government had introduced many schemes for the benefit of manual workers and with a view to uplifting their status.
“The petitioner is not able to specify the place where the Act or Rules framed thereunder had not been implemented. A very innocuous allegation has been made in the petition as though the Act and Rules had not been implemented. In the light of the Commissioner’ s statement, we are not in a position to issue any further direction as prayed for.
“Further to implement any Act or statutory rules, no direction is required from the court because every citizen of this country including government servants are bound by the statutes,” the judges observed before dismissing the petition preferred by Uzhaikum Makkal Union, Madurai Mavattta Kattumana Matrum Thatchu Thozhilalar Union and five others.
