Delhi High Court seeks response from government on PIL against laws permitting manual scavenging under guise of protective gear

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday issued notice to the Central government on a public interest litigation (PIL) petition challenging the Constitutional validity of laws which allow manual scavenging and cleaning of sewer and septic tanks either manually or with protective devices [Kallu v Union of India & Anr]..A Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora ordered the government to file its reply to the plea within eight weeks and listed the case for further consideration on July 4..The plea filed by Kallu, a sewer/septic tank cleaner whose brother died while 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.The petition also seeks a direction to the government to rehabilitate the workers and their family members who are engaged in sewage/septic cleaning as well as disposing of human excreta..Kallu said 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.It is his case that these Sections and the Rules facilitate only partial prohibition and therefore, fail to comply with the principles of Article 17.“These sections promotes the concept of “compromised dignity” which is alien to the Indian Constitution and allows the idea of purity and pollution to continue under the garb of sanitation work and invisibilising manual scavengers is a violation of the constitutional right against right to life with human dignity, and does not stand the constitutional test manifested in the expansive and anti-exclusionary right to life,” the plea argued..The plea filed through advocate Pawan Reley contended that “cosmetic effect” created by the Explanation (b) of Section 2(1)(g) not only fails to eradicate the dehumanizing practice of manual scavenging and do justice with them but also makes this practice legitimate in the eyes of law by creating an artificial classification between the manual scavengers on the basis of protective gears.“Therefore, 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.”It argued that explanation (a) of Section 2(1)(g) of the MS Act, 2013 is also discriminatory in nature because it only postulates for regular or contractual employees and has not included the person cleaning human excreta for daily wages or temporary workers and Jajmani (lower castes performing various functions for upper castes and received grain or other goods in return). “This 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 added that the essence of the whole objective of the 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.