"Atrocious": Supreme Court on States' failure to provide ration cards to migrant workers

The Supreme Court on Tuesday took exception to the failure by States and Union Territories (UTs) to comply with its order of March 19 to verify and provide ration cards to nearly 8 crore migrant workers [In Re Problems and Miseries of Migrant Workers].A division bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Ahsanuddin Amanullah warned of contempt of court action against such States and also cautioned that Chief Secretaries of those States will be summoned."This is absolutely atrocious by States. We will call upon Chief Secretaries if it is not complied with by the next date. Don't ever think that we don't know how to ensure compliance of our order. Remember this," the Court said.This was after advocate Prashant Bhushan informed the Court that only two States, Tripura and Bihar, have completed 100 per cent verification and other States and UTs are either under process of completing the verification or some have not even started.The Court was also told that even if ration cards were issued, some States and UTs were not issuing ration to these workers on the ground that Central government has not allocated them additional ration.To this, a miffed Justice Amanullah orally remarked,"Who are these States to judge the Supreme Court's order? Tell us who have not complied with. We will impose cost and will call upon Chief Secretaries for non-compliance. 4 months have passed and nothing has been done," the Court remarked. .The Court was hearing a suo motu case concerning the welfare of migrant workers which was initiated during the COVID lockdown of 2020.On March 19 this year, the Court had ordered States and Union Territories to complete the exercise of providing ration cards to 8 crore migrant workers within two months.This was after it noted that its year-old order to provide ration cards to migrants workers remains yet to be implemented.The Court had also said on March 19 that the Central government's exercise of completing electronic know your customer (KYC) for the card-holders can go on simultaneously..When the matter was heard today, the Court was told the the order was yet to be implemented."Atrocious. You want us to comment on the sanctity of the office bearers of the governments here. We will not shy away from it. We will write an essay on this. Don't force us. You don't force us to comment on your government," the Court said.The Court eventually granted 4 more weeks to all the States and UTs to ensure compliance with its direction to fully verify and grant ration cards to the migrant workers. It also directed the Central government to provide additional ration to those States, who can then supply the same to the workers holding a ration card.The matter will be heard again on August 27..[Read Live Coverage]