The Division Bench of Gujarat High Court, comprising Acting Chief Justice A. J. Desai and Justice Biren Vaishnav in the case of Manav Garima vs State of Gujarat has passed an order to put a stop to the practice of manual scavenging by a warning that it will hold the chief of the Gram Panchayat and the Commissioner of the concerned civic body responsible if any person is found to be engaged in manual scavenging.
The Petitioner has filed the Public Interest Litigation for highlighting the issue of manual scavenging in the state and sought proper implementation of the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013, which aims to eliminate the inhumane practice of manual scavenging and provide for the rehabilitation of manual scavengers.
The Court was informed by the Respondent authorities that the amounts disbursed to the legal heirs of deceased workers who lost their lives pursuant to unfortunate incident in which the deceased workers were asked to clean the sewerage by entering there into.
The learned advocate appearing for the petitioner requested for time to respond to the further affidavit filed by the respondents.
The Court listed the matter on 19.06.23 for further adjudication and ordered that “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 further instructed the respondent Authority to distribute the amount of compensation as per the scheme of the said Government Resolution to the legal heirs of the deceased workers before the next date of hearing.
Case Details
Case:- WRIT PETITION (PIL) NO. 225 of 2016
Petitioner:- Manav Garima
Respondent:- State of Gujarat
Judge: Acting Chief Justice A. J. Desai and Justice Biren Vaishnav
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