Coronavirus Lockdown: PIL moved before Supreme Court to ensure payments of wages to all the migrant workers

A Petition has been preferred before the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the Central and the State Governments to ensure payments of wages/ minimum wages to all the migrant workers, whether self-emplyed or otherwise, during the period of the lockdown..The public interest litigation has been moved by activists Harsh Mander and Anjali Bhardwaj (Petitioners), through Advocate Prashant Bhushan..The Petitioners state that they have approached the Supreme Court to enforce the fundamental right under Article 21 of the Constitution of India, of migrant workers who are severely affected by the 21 day nation-wide lockdown ordered by the Central Government in view of COVID-19. .Coronavirus: PM Modi calls for 21-day lockdown; essential goods, services excluded; violators charged under Disaster Mgmt Act [Guidelines].It is Petitioners' case that the March 29 order passed by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India was not the correct or adequate response to the large scale exodus of migrant workers in response to the lockdown..This order asks employer of the migrant workers to pay their wages during the lockdown and their landlords not to charge them rent for this period...it is also unrealistic to expect the small establishments employing migrant workers to pay them their wages at their place of work. Due to the lockdown the workers cannot travel to their place of work and many of these establishments are small businesses that have been forced to shut down and hence employers will not be able to pay these wages. Besides majority of these migrant workers are self employed. The order ignores the harsh realities that workers have to persistently face in cities that is further compounded when a lockdown order deprives them of their job, daily wages and hence means of survival, thus violating their Article 21 rights....the Petition reads. .It is asserted that instead of the employer, the Central and State Authorities must ensure wages to these migrant workers at the place where they are currently present under the lockdown..The Petition reads, "The government must ..ensure that the wages are paid to migrant workers at the place that they are presently located during the lockdown, whether in their home state or in shelter homes or in the state where they had migrated to before the lockdown.. All the problem created for migrant workers due to the unplanned and sudden lockdown that is their loss of job and money and thereby access to food and shelter, would be obviated if the State-central or state governments were to provide these workers their wages during the period of the lockdown.".The Petitioners state that Disaster Management Act obliges the Central and State governments to put in place a detailed plan and machinery to deal with and mitigate the effects of disasters such as COVID-19 and extend all help to the victims. ."In any case it is really the governments and the authorities that have to provide reliefs to people affected by national disasters. That is the whole object of the Disaster Management Act.", the Petition argues. .The Petitioners, therefore, also seek a direction to the Central and State Governments to immediately activate National and State Advisory Committees of experts in the field of disaster management and public health, and prepare national and state disaster management plans to deal with the COVID-19 in terms of the Disaster Management Act, 2005..Earlier today, the petition was mentioned by Advocate Prashant Bhushan before Justice Nageshwar Rao who agreed to take it up on an urgent basis on the next day the court sits..The Petition was drawn by Advocate Cheryl D’souza.