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The Bombay High Court has taken a proactive approach in protecting the rights of workers on duty performing essential services duing the COVID – 19 epidemic regardless of whether they’re employed on a contractual basis or are full time workers.
The court, in its order, directed the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation to pay a daily allowance of 300 Rs to its contractual workers (kamgaars), on par with its full time workers owing to the risky nature of their job and the obligation the corporations owes to them as a result of it.
The corporation, however argued that they were not obligated to pay daily allowance to these kamgaars as they are contractual workers and since the corporation is not getting sufficient revenue during the pandemic, the court should not place an additional burden on them.
The court dismissed this plea by saying that a simple technicality of the kamgaars being contractual workers doesn’t preclude the corporation from the obligation that they owe them, and that treating full time employees differentially is unfair and discriminatory in these trying times, and a humane approach is of utmost necessity during the pandemic, and thus places an additional moral obligation on corporations.
The Court proceeded to issue the following directions in favour of the kamgars, in its order passed yesterday:
This proactive approach taken by the Bombay High Court to extend a helping hand to our frontline warriors, who are working to keep our streets clean, to provide us with essential services is welcome and is imperative. However, there is growing concern with regards to the amount of interference or lack thereof shown by the apex court and the judicial system in the ongoing migrant labour crisis as a result of the pandemic.
Activists and intellectuals have increasingly started criticizing the apathetic attitude towards the crisis that the courts have taken, even the suo moto cognizance of the situation came two months after the crisis began, and it could very well prove to be too little too late.
But verdicts like these follow the approach that the courts have historically taken whenever there has been a civil crisis, and must be followed by other High Courts as well as the Apex Courts to tackle this crisis that the underprivileged are facing during this pandemic.
When communities, governments and the affluent our failing the disenfranchised in society, it has always been an incumbent duty on the courts of India to intervene and ensure fairness and justice, and that tradition must continue during this pandemic.
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