AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat High Court disposed of a suo motu public interest litigation (PIL) with regard to manual scavenging after directing the state government to strictly implement the law and take "all necessary steps" to abolish the practice.
While disposing of the PIL, the High Court bench of acting Chief Justice V M Sahai and Justice R P Dohalaria directed the state government to take "all necessary steps" to eradicate manual scavenging.
The bench also directed the government to strictly implement the law to abolish the practice.
In 2003, a city-based NGO Lok Adhikar Manch filed a PIL seeking a direction from the High Court to stop manual scavenging.
The PIL claimed that manual scavenging is still practised in the state.
Meanwhile, when that PIL was pending, the Gujarat High Court took cognisance of a newspaper report in 2008 and filed a suo motu PIL regarding the same issue and merged it with an earlier one.
In its reply to the Gujarat High Court in August 2014, the state government had stated that manual scavenging was absent in the state since the Abolition of Manual Scavenging Act of 1993 is already in place.
However, Lok Adhikar had challenged the government's claims and argued that manual scavenging is still being practiced in the state. PTI