The Gujarat High Court on Friday reprimanded the state government for filing a first information report against a contractual sanitation worker for “wilfully” entering a septic tank despite a prohibition on manual scavenging, Live Law reported on Saturday.
A division bench of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Aniruddha Mayee was hearing a public interest litigation by Ahmedabad-based nongovernmental organisation Manav Garima that is seeking strict implementation of the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013.
Manual scavenging – or the practice of removing human excreta by hand from sewer lines or septic tanks – is banned under the law, but the practice remains prevalent in several parts of the country.
A sanitation worker had died and another suffered serious injuries while cleaning a septic tank at the Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute’s Bhavnagar campus in November. The state had booked the surviving worker for illegally and “wilfully” entering the septic tank.
The state government had conducted an inquiry into the incident on the court’s direction and submitted a report stating the actions taken and actions proposed to be taken.
On Friday, the government shared the findings of the inquiry with the court and said that the Bhavnagar Municipal Corporation had not deployed a supervisor at the site…
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