Delhi High Court: Petitioners were the widows of workers who lost their lives in manual scavenging, and they approached the Court for a direction to respondents to pay Rs 20 lakhs to petitioners in terms of the judgment passed by the Supreme Court in Balram Singh v. Union of India, 2023 SCC OnLine SC 1386 (‘Balram Singh Case’). Subramonium Prasad, J., opined that petitioners herein ought to have been granted the same benefit of additional Rs 20 lakhs as held in Balram Singh Case (supra). The Court directed respondents to pay Rs 20 lakhs to all similarly placed persons instead of forcing the family members of persons who had lost their lives in manual scavenging to approach this Court by filing writ petitions.
Petitioners submitted that the State Government under its policy had given Rs 10 lakhs to the family of the persons who had died earlier due to manual scavenging and further stated that in Balram Singh Case (supra), the Supreme Court directed “the Union and the States to ensure that the compensation for sewer deaths was increased (given that the previous amount fixed, i.e., Rs. 10 lakhs) and was made applicable from 1993. The current equivalent of that amount was Rs. 30 lakhs. This shall be the amount to be paid by the agency concerned, i.e., the Union, the Union Territory, or the State as the case might be. In other words, compensation for sewer deaths shall be Rs. 30 lakhs. In the event, dependents of any victim have not been paid such amount, the above amount shall be payable to them. Furthermore, this shall be the amount to be paid, as compensation”.
The Court noted that it had passed similar directions in order dated 23-11-2023 in Preeti v. Union of India, W.P.(C) 15156 of 2023 (‘Preeti Case’) and thus, it opined that when a person approaches the court and gets a declaration of law in his favour, it was expected that the State shall extend the same benefit to all the similarly situated persons without forcing those persons to approach the court of law.
The Court further opined that petitioners herein were similarly placed to petitioner in Preeti Case (supra) and thus petitioners herein ought to have been granted the same benefit of additional Rs 20 lakhs in terms of the judgment passed by the Supreme Court in Balram Singh Case (supra). The Court thus allowed the writ petition and directed respondents to pay Rs 20 lakhs within six weeks of the date of this order.
The Court stated that it expected that the State would endeavour to pay the balance of Rs 20 lakh to all similarly placed persons instead of forcing the family members of persons who had lost their lives in manual scavenging to approach this Court by filing writ petitions.
[Maya Kaur v. Union of India, 2024 SCC OnLine Del 745, Order dated 29-01-2024]
Advocates who appeared in this case:
For the Petitioners: Pawan Reley, Akshay Lodhi, Sajal Awasthi, Simran Singh, Advocates
For the Respondents: Nidhi Banga, Senior Panel Counsel; Kanishk, GP; Satyakam, Raghuvinder Varma, ASC; Sangeeta Bharti, Divya Swamy, Standing Counsel; Nishant Kumar, Pradyut Kashyap, Malvi Balyan, Aarushi Behl, Yagyawalkya Singh, Akriti Singh, Advocates
