The High Court of Karnataka on Wednesday takes suo motu cognisance of a newspaper report, which had highlighted that manual scavenging is continuing in the State despite ban imposed on such a practice in law.
“After several decades of our independence, somebody, who is our brother in the society and merely due to his misfortune that he took birth in a particular community and carrying the stamp of one caste, is required to do these things (manual scavenging). Is it not a shame on humanity...Is it this for what we all are here?“ a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Prasanna B. Varale and Justice Krishna S. Dixit observed.
The Bench requested advocate Sridhar Prabhu to assist the court as amicus curiae while directing the registry to prepare a PIL petition and submit for court’s consideration based on the newspaper report published with the headline, ‘despite ban, manual scavenging continues.’
Continuation of such an inhuman practice impacts the country despite its achievements like reaching the moon, the court said orally, pointing out that it is not the question of availability or non-availability of machinery for scavenging but its all bout our mindset.
The Bench noted that the newspaper report has highlighted that the inhuman activity of manual scavenging is continuing in the State despite the prohibition imposed under Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013.
Earlier PILs
The High Court, in 2020, noticed there was hardly any implementation of the provisions of the 2013 Act, and had issued a series of directions to the State government for implementing the law on two separate PIL petitions, filed by the All India Council for Trade Unions and the High Court Legal Services Committee, complaining about non-implementation of the law. The court, through these two petitions, is monitoring actions initiated by the State as well as incidents of deaths occurred while cleaning manholes in several parts of the State since then.
