Mounting pressure senior lawyers changed SC approach on migrant labourers

Up until Tuesday, when it issued the order, the top court had shied away from taking up cases and passing strictures against the government in cases related to the lockdown and migrant workers.

The Supreme Court’s order directing the Central and state governments to provide free transport, food and shelter to migrant workers on an urgent basis is in stark contrast to the approach it had adopted throughout the Covid-19 lockdown.

Deprived of their employment and definite source of food, migrant workers were forced to start walking to their home states, often thousands of kilometres away, with little children, family members or elderly parents, the letter said. (Satyabrata Tripathy/HT Photo)

Up until Tuesday, when it issued the order, the top court had shied away from taking up cases and passing strictures against the government in cases related to the lockdown and migrant workers.

But the apex court, in its order, took serious note of the plight of migrant workers and asked the Centre and all states to file responses regarding measures put in place by them to help the workers. It also listed the matter for hearing on Thursday, a departure from its usual practice of adjourning most cases for two weeks or more.

Moreover, the order was passed suo motu, that is, on its own and not in response to any petition.

So what led to the sudden change in its stance?

Twenty-one lawyers from Delhi and Mumbai had written to the Chief Justice on Monday, urging the Supreme Court to intervene in the humanitarian crisis caused by the lockdown.

“We address this letter because we believe that the Hon’ble Supreme Court’s failure to protect the rights of the hapless millions of migrant workers in March and its failure to scrutinise carefully the executive’s actions, which resulted in them (migrant labourers) being compelled to stay in cramped unhygienic accommodation without employment and wages and often without proper food and with a much higher risk of Covid infection,” the letter said.

The letter was signed by leading lawyers such as P Chidambaram, Anand Grover, Indira Jaising, Mohan Katarki, Siddarth Luthra, Santosh Paul, Mahalaxmi Pavani, Kapil Sibal, Chander Uday Singh, Vikas Singh, Prashant Bhushan, Iqbal Chagla, Aspi Chinoy, Mihir Desai, Janak Dwarkadas, Rajani Iyer, Yusuf Muchhala, Rajiv Patil, Navroz Seervai, Gayatri Singh and Sanjay Singhvi.

They said the lockdown was imposed from March 25 without any consideration paid to the plight of the poor, especially migrant workers who earn a livelihood in major cities, and for whom social distancing is a utopian impossibility.

Deprived of their employment and definite source of food, migrant workers were forced to start walking to their home states, often thousands of kilometres away, with little children, family members or elderly parents, the letter said.

It also pointed out that the Supreme Court had refused to intervene when a petition highlighting these concerns came up before it in March. It said: “This failure to intervene in March, subsequently resulted in a massive migration of millions of workers by early May, when migrant labourers who were fed up with being virtually incarcerated for the previous six weeks, without employment or wages, decided that they would be better off trying to go back to their homes.”

The lawyers urged the court to use public interest litigation jurisprudence developed by it, along with its powers under the Constitution, to redress problems faced by migrant workers.

“This Hon’ble Court has the power bestowed by the Constitution of India to undertake any measure to do complete justice. The show of helplessness does no justice to the moto of this court ‘Yato dharmastato Jaya’,” the letter stated.

The Supreme Court itself acknowledged in its order of Tuesday that it had received letters and representations from different sections of society, highlighting the “unfortunate and miserable conditions of migrant labourers” walking on foot and using bicycles to travel long distances.

Several high courts, including those in Gujarat, Madras, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, have passed orders to redress grievances of migrant workers, though the Supreme Court continued to be silent on the issue till Tuesday.

Former Supreme Court judge Gopala Gowda had, in a scathing article in Deccan Herald, described the Supreme Court’s response to the migrant crisis during the Covid-19 crisis as the “darkest moment” in its history, worse than the infamy the apex court had acquired during the national emergency of 1975, when it had approved the executive action of detaining political leaders without trial.

Senior advocate and Supreme Court Bar Association president Dushyant Dave had also criticised the court’s handling of Covid-19 cases. At a webinar organised by the All India Lawyers Union on May 23, he said the judiciary failed to protect the rights of citizens during the crisis and remained silent as citizens suffered.

He said judges should have taken suo motu cognisance of the issue instead of waiting for cases to be listed before them.

“What is stopping outstanding judges from taking up matters (relating to Covid-19) suo motu? They should confront the chief justice’s powers of master of roster. But they are remaining silent,” Dave said.