The Supreme Court has sought the government’s response in a plea to fill four vacancies in the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis, a statutory body constituted in 1994 to ensure the rights of sanitation workers.
A Bench headed by Justice Surya Kant issued notice to the Centre on the petition filed by advocate Radhakanta Tripathy, who said his representation on June 9 to the government to make the appointments to the Commission got no response.
The petition showed that other than the Commission chairperson M. Venkatesan, the vice-chairperson and a member, the posts of the remaining four have not been filled.
Mr. Tripathy, who is a party-in-person in the case, said the objectives of the Commission include the elimination of inequalities in status, facilities and opportunities for safai karamcharis.
The petition noted that one of the tasks of the Commission was to “study and evaluate the implementation of the programmes and schemes relating to the social and economic rehabilitation of safai karamcharis and scavengers in particular”.
The petitioner said the fact that manual scavenging has been prohibited in a statute enacted in 2013 has made it all the more important that the Commission function with full force to socially and economically uplift the people and families who were once engaged in it.
Mr. Tripathy also reminded that the Commission played a pivotal role in the implementation of a Supreme Court judgment in March 2014, which had directed the government to “identify families of all persons who had died during sewerage work in manholes, septic tanks, etc., since 1993, and award a compensation of ₹10 lahks to the family members of the deceased”.
The top court listed the case for hearing the government’s response on October 20, 2023.
