BENGALURU: Directing the authorities not to disturb Nagamma, the widow of a manual scavenger who died while on duty, from possession of a plot having a house at Doddabelavangala, the Karnataka High Court on Thursday imposed Rs 50,000 cost on the principal secretary of the Department of Social Welfare, Bengaluru Rural deputy commissioner and panchayat development officer (PDO) of Doddabelavangala.
Directing officials to pay the cost jointly and severally to the petitioner, Nagamma, Justice M Nagaprasanna also directed the Doddabelavangala Grama Panchayat to pay her litigation expenses of Rs 50,000, saying the act of the panchayat took away the petitioner’s right over the property, that was granted to her by the state, in response to the order passed by the court.
The plot, with a house, was granted to her after she approached the court a second time. Her husband Narasimahaiah died in 2008 due to asphyxiation, after he was forced to go inside a manhole in Yelahanka, due to the negligence of the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board.
The judge also noted that the State, particularly the principal secretary and deputy commissioner, shall oversee that all benefits under Section 13 of the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013, are conferred upon the petitioner and not drive her to another round of litigation. “Ergo, it is high time the haves stop despoiling the rights of have-nots; the haves, I mean, those who have power,” the judge observed, passing the order on the petition filed by Nagamma.
The petitioner moved court as the site allotted to her in 2012, after she approached court, was taken back by the PDO for construction of a Nada Kacheri in 2022, saying she had not constructed a house on the site, despite the passage of nine years after allotment.
This was not made known to her. After she came to know, she was assured of an alternative site, but no site was allotted despite her giving a plethora of representations. She again approached court, ironically with the same writ petition number, after 11 years. The authorities allotted the plot during pendency of the petition.