The Delhi High Court on Thursday sought response of the Centre on an application seeking to ensure strict compliance with the 2013 law on manual scavengers to prevent loss of lives due to manual cleaning of sewers and septic tanks.
A Bench of Chief Justice D.N. Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh allowed lawyer and social activist Amit Sahni’s application for making the Centre as a party to his petition.
“We are allowing this application. We are joining the Union of India as party respondent. Notice upon the newly joined party,” the High Court said and listed the case for hearing on September 17.
In his fresh application, Mr. Sahni referred to the statement made by Minister of State (MoS) for Social Justice and Empowerment, Ramdas Athawale, in the Rajya Sabha on July 27, 2020 that “no such deaths have been reported due to manual scavenging” in the last five years.
Mr. Athawale made the statement in a written response to a question asked in the Rajya Sabha by Mallikarjun Kharge and L. Hanumanthaiah on manual scavenging, the deaths due to it in the last five years and rehabilitation of manual scavengers.
Mr. Sahni claimed that the answer given by the MoS was “not only false and misleading but also shows utter insensitivity and apathy towards the departed souls of the manual scavengers, their family members and also towards the group of people who are still into manual scavenging”.
Mr .Sahni said that such statement from the ex-officio chairperson of the Central Committee constituted under the Act further makes it evident that the government has indulged in deliberate misstatement and distortion of facts to applaud itself contrary to the record available in public domain.
The application further stated that the Ministry concerned had earlier in February this year submitted that “340 deaths have been caused due to manual scavenging during the last five years” which is an antithesis to the unstarred question raised in the Upper House of Parliament.
Besides the Delhi government, the court had earlier asked municipal bodies, Delhi Jal Board, Delhi Cantonment Board and PWD to file their affidavits to the petition.
