A notice was issued by the Delhi High Court to the Central Government on a plea challenging the constitutional validity of few provisions of the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation (PEMSR).
The plea challenges the Constitutional validity of laws which allow manual scavenging and cleaning of sewer and septic tanks either manually or with protection.
The Delhi High Court Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora have asked the cemtral government to file their reply in the plea within eight weeks.
The Bnech has also listed the case for further consideration on July 4.
The plea was filed by a sewer worker named who lost his brother to cleaning sewage, has challenged Sections 2(1)(g), 13, 14 15, 16 and 39 of the Manual Scavenging Act, 2013 as well as Rules 3, 4, 5, and 6(2) of the Manual Scavenging Rules, 2013.
In his petition, the petitioner also asked for direction to be given to the government for rehabilitating the workers and their family members who are engaged in sewage/septic cleaning as well as disposing of human excreta.
The plea by Kallu mentions that the provisions of the Act and the Rules still allow manual scavenging and cleaning of sewer and septic either manually or with protective devices and actually gives way to untouchability and are in violation of Articles 14, 17, 21 and 24 of the Constitution of India.
Talking about his specific case, Kallu mentions that Sections and the Rules facilitate only partial prohibition and therefore, fail to comply with the principles of Article 17.
The plea argues that the sections promote the idea of compromised dignity which allows the idea of purity and pollution to continue under the garb of sanitation work.
The plea also argues that this also makws the invisibilising manual scavengers invisible, which is gross violation of the constitutional right against right to life with human dignity.
The plea contends that all the benefits such as that of rehabilitation, scholarships etc. have been snatched away from Manual Scavengers with Protective Gears for which they are equally eligible like the Manual Scavengers without the Protective Gears without considering the fact that the nature of work remains the same.”
The explanation has created a further unreasonable classification between the manual scavengers because it excludes the daily wage, temporary workers, and Jajmani workers to come under the ambit of Section 2(1)(g) thereby making them redundant to avail the benefits for which they are absolutely eligible because the nature of work which is to clean, carry, dispose or handle in any manner the human excreta remains the same whether employed on daily wage basis or contractual or permanent basis.
The PIL said that the whole objective of Manual Scavenging Act has been tarnished by enacting Section 39 which gives the power to the Central government to exempt and allow manual scavenging for six months.