NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday sought the response of the Centre and the Delhi government on a PIL challenging the laws allowing manual scavenging and cleaning of sewer and septic tanks.
A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan was hearing the PIL seeking exclusion of sewer and septic tank cleaners doing hazardous cleaning from the purview of Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 and the rules framed therein.
Issuing notice in the matter, the bench also comprising Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora directed the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and the city government to file their responses within eight weeks while posting further hearing on July 4.
The petitioner is the brother of a septic tank and sewer cleaner and a daily-wage labourer who died in 2017 while cleaning sewer in Lajpat Nagar.
It was sought by the petitioner for a direction upon the governments to rehabilitate sewer cleaners and provide them all the benefits as received by manual scavengers under the act.
“It (impugned provisions) violates Article 14 (equality before law) because it is manifestly arbitrary. It is also against the principles of reasonable classification: it excludes from its purview the ‘sewer cleaner and septic tank cleaner doing hazardous cleaning.’ They have to clean, carry, dispose of and handle human excreta from more dangerous places,” the petitioner said.
The petitioner is the brother of a septic tank and sewer cleaner and a daily-wage labourer who died in 2017 while cleaning sewer in Lajpat Nagar.
It was sought by the petitioner for a direction upon the governments to rehabilitate sewer cleaners and provide them all the benefits as received by manual scavengers under the act.
“It (impugned provisions) violates Article 14 (equality before law) because it is manifestly arbitrary. It is also against the principles of reasonable classification: it excludes from its purview the ‘sewer cleaner and septic tank cleaner doing hazardous cleaning.’ They have to clean, carry, dispose of and handle human excreta from more dangerous places,” the petitioner said.