Hearing on migrant workers' crisis is on in Supreme Court

Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 28

A three-judge Bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan on Thursday commenced hearing via video-conferencing on migrant workers' crisis.

Other two judges on the Bench are Justice SK Kaul and Justice MR Shah.

Senior advocates Kapil Sibal, Indira Jaising, Colin Gonsalves, Sanjay Parikh and P Chidambaram were visible on the screen.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta represented the Centre.

The Supreme Court had on Tuesday taken suo motu cognisance of the plight of migrant workers stranded in various parts of the country and asked the Centre, states and UTs to spell out measures taken to deal with the crisis.

 After that many intervention applications, including one by activist Medha Patkar, have been filed.

Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala had filed an intervention application on Wednesday seeking to be heard in the matter.

Some of the senior advocates are representing the intervenors, including Surjewala and Patkar, in the case.

Many advocates are representing various states and union territories.

Jaising and Gonsalves pressed for certain directions on Thursday itself, citing 'urgency' of the matter. But the Bench asked them not to speak simultaneously. "If all of you speak at the same time, we won't understand anything," the SC said.

"We are immensely grateful that this court has taken cognisance. The Centre and states are willing to show all steps taken. Some isolated incidents have taken place but they are shown repeatedly. We have filed a preliminary report on the steps taken,” Mehta told the SC.

"No doubt the governments have taken steps but those persons are not getting the benefits from the state governments," the SC said.

Mehta explained how and why the movement of migrant workers was allowed after two phases of the COVID19 lockdown.

Mehta thanked the top court for taking cognisance of the issue. He said the Centre and states had a responsible and august forum where they could point out steps.

Mehta told the SC that the Centre and states had done a lot to control the Covid situation and help migrant workers. But certain unfortunate incidents were repeatedly telecast or reported to shadow the good work by governments, he added.

The court asked if food and shelter was being provided to migrant workers.

"With food surpluses available with the FCI, if even during the time when these people are waiting to be transported, is food being supplied to these people or not? Why should there be a food shortage among people?" the SC asked.

"We accept that it's not possible to transport everyone at the same time. But food and shelter must be given till they can get transport," said Justice Kaul.

"Food will have to come either from the originating state or the Centre. The destination state can't give them food till they get there. It would have to be origin state or the Centre. Who is supplying food?" asked Justice Kaul.

"This is an unprecedented crisis and we are taking unprecedented measures," Mehta told the Bench.

It’s not that the government is not doing anything but looking at the number of stranded migrants, some concrete steps need to be taken, the SC said.

"We need to ensure that till the time the migrants are transported back to their homes, food and other essentials for them should be taken care of," the top court said.

The Bench said, "Look into the future. How much time do you need to shift the migrants to where they want to go? What will be monitoring mechanism to ensure that food and basic necessities are taken care of. States have to provide information."

The Bench sought to know how many further days would it take to shift the migrant workers.

Mehta said approximately one crore had already been shifted. Several opted not to shift due to the reopening of activities. States would be in a better position to estimate that, he added.