NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday asked the chief secretaries of all states and Union Territories (UTs) to place on record status report on number of manual scavengers employed directly or indirectly since 1993 when the law prohibiting the practice was enacted.
Hearing a plea on the issue, a bench of justices A K Sikri and S Abdul Nazeer observed that the matter was serious and asked all the states and the UTs to file their reply within four weeks.
The plea, filed by a NGO Criminal Justice Society of India headed by senior advocate K T S Tulsi, sought the number of manual scavengers who have died since 1993.
The plea filed through Fuzail Ahmad Ayyubi also sought a direction to all the states, UTs and the Indian Railways to investigate the death of manual scavengers and initiate criminal proceedings under IPC Section 304 (punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder) against the authorities, agencies, contractors or any other official who have directly or indirectly employed manual scavengers.
The death of persons under these circumstances cannot be attributed to mere negligence as these persons are engaged either directly or indirectly to carry out acts which are prohibited under the law and are exposing them to deplorable and hazardous conditions which have proved to be fatal in numerous instances, it said.
(AGENCIES)
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