NHRC moves apex court
NEW DELHI: As the Supreme Court of India took up the sup motu matter of plight of migrant workers again on Friday, the National Human Rights Commission moved an intervening application in the matter, citing that what the migrant workers went through during the COVID-19 lockdown showed that the InterState Migrant Workmen Act of 1979 was never implemented in its true spirit.
In fact, when Senior Advocate Prabhu Patil appeared in the top court during the hearing on Friday on behalf of the NHRC, Solicitor-general Tushar Mehta had interjected saying that the Commission must wait for the government to reply to its notices. After several reports of delayed Sharmik Trains and migrant workers dying on these trains purportedly due to a lack of food and water, the NHRC had taken sup motu cognizance and sent notices to the Railway Ministry. S-G Mehta had said in court, "NHRC had issued notice to Railways. You must wait."
After several reports of migrant workers dying on trains became public, official data from the Railway Protection Force had shown that at least 88 migrant workers had died in the Shramik Trains since they started operations on May 1. However, the Railways has insisted that all deaths on the trains were caused due to pre-existing illnesses, further inviting questions on the efficacy of screening procedures at railway stations which are meant to identify any symptomatic passengers before the board the train.
While the NHRC had taken suo motu cognizance of the plight of the migrant workers in six separate incidents as per their application in the
Supreme Court, Patil submitted to the SC bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan that the NHRC seeks to intervene in the case. "NHRC has come up with 10 short term and long term measures, which may be considered."
However, as the NHRC
listed some of the measures, the S-G had interjected again, noting that these were long-term measures and can be taken up
later. After Patil specifically mentioned that the NHRC'S application is not adversarial in nature, the S-G said, "I don't oppose NHRC'S intervention."
The NHRC, in its application, cited many reports that said around 40 per cent of the Shramik Trains were delayed, with an average delay time of eight hours and suggested that the Railways should consult with States and make sure that delays are avoided and trains do not end up at wrong destinations.