Delhi High Court issues directions for time bound recovery of back wages, financial aid to bonded child labourers

The Delhi High Court has issued a slew of directions to be followed by the Central and State agencies to recover the back wages and provide financial assistance to the bonded child labourers [Kaum Faqeer Shah v Ministry of Labour and Employment and Ors]..A Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora said that as soon as a child is rescued and is placed in the childcare/juvenile home, a savings account shall be opened in his name jointly with the superintendent/in-charge of the child care institution (temporary guardian of the child).If the parents/guardian of the rescued child are located at any time in future or if he/she is repatriated to their native place, the financial assistance as well as the back wages recovered shall be transferred to their accounts within a week.“In the event that the rescued child who remained under the care of the CWC, and during the period of his stay at such CWC attains the age of majority, then, upon such an individual submitting an application directly to the bank where an account has been opened in his name, he/she shall be granted permission to operate such account as a sole individual,” the Court added..On the issue of recovery of back wages, the Bench said that Delhi government’s Department of Labour shall issue recovery notices to employers within two working days of the rescue of the child.The Inspector under the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 or the Payment of Wages Act, 1936 shall grant the accused employer/owner two weeks’ time to deposit back wages. In those cases, where these amounts are not deposited within such a time-frame, the Inspector thereafter is to request the CWC to recover the same as fine, the Court ordered.“It is directed in case back wages are not deposited by the accused employer/owner within the stipulated period of two (2) weeks, recovery certificates shall be issued by the concerned authority and the back wages shall be recovered as arrears of land revenue by the concerned SDM," the Court further directed. The Bench added that in cases where the back wages for a particular bonded child labour is recovered, the same shall be disbursed to the child or his/her parents/legal guardians in identical procedures as outlined for the grant of Financial Assistance.Such disbursal shall be made within one week from such a recovery, the Court directed.“The concerned authority shall ensure that the actual recovery from the accused employer/owner is completed within three (3) months from the date of issue of recovery certificate. The concerned departments of GNCTD shall ensure strict time bound compliance of the directions.”.The Court passed these detailed directions while dealing with two petitions filed by the fathers of two bonded child labourers seeking statutory financial assistance for their children and several other similarly situated children.While one petition said that there are nearly 115 children who are yet to receive their back wages and sought directions for a time bound recovery of back wages, the other sought directions for the payment of immediate financial rehabilitative assistance to rescued child labourers..The authorities came up with joint suggestions, providing a mechanism for immediate financial assistance and expeditious recovery of back wages.The Bench examined the suggestions and approved the same. It then ordered the Delhi government to put the Court's directions on its website along with standard operating procedures approved in an earlier matter.The Court directed the authorities to recover the pending back wages of the 115 children listed in one of the petitions in a time bound manner in line with the above directions.It also appreciated the joint exercise undertaken by the counsel appearing for the petitioner and the government agencies for coming up with the joint suggestions..Advocate Robin Raju appeared for the petitioners, Kaum Faqeer Shah and Mohd Kadir Ansari.The Union Ministry of Labour was represented through Central Government Standing Counsel Nidhi Raman and Advocate Zubin Singh.Additional Standing Counsel Hetu Arora Sethi with Advocates Arjun Basra and Nirmal Prasad represented the Delhi government. .[Read Judgement]