E-Paper
SC seeks govt response over payment of minimum wages to migrant workers
The petition filed by activists Harsh Mander and Anjali Bhardwaj pointed out that migrant workers are unable to earn their wages because of the ongoing 21-day nationwide lockdown enforced by the government since March 25 to contain the spread of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak.
The Supreme Court (SC) on Friday sought the response of the Central government in a plea to ensure payments of minimum wages to all migrant workers, who are either employed by companies or contractors or self-employed, within a week.
The petition filed by activists Harsh Mander and Anjali Bhardwaj pointed out that migrant workers are unable to earn their wages because of the ongoing 21-day nationwide lockdown enforced by the government since March 25 to contain the spread of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak.
A bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and Deepak Gupta posted the case for next hearing on April 7.
The petitioners submitted that the lockdown order issued on March 24, for which no prior intimation was given, created a panic across the country and led to the instantaneous loss of jobs and wages of millions of migrant workers employed in establishments across the country or self-employed as street vendors, rickshaw-pullers, domestic helps, petty job workers, etc.
“The (lockdown) order ignores the harsh realities that workers have to persistently face in cities that is further compounded when the order deprives them of their jobs, daily wages and as a result, means of survival, thus violating their Article 21 (Right to Life) rights,” the petition stated.
Petition seeking free Covid 19 testing
The SC on Friday asked the Centre for its response a petition praying that Covid-19 test should be provided free of cost to all citizens at all private and government-run testing laboratories.
At present, private laboratories are allowed to charge up to Rs 4,500 to conduct Covid-19 test.
“It is urgently required that the respondents have to provide free of cost Covid-19 test to all citizens,” the petition stated.
Advocate Shashank Deo Sudhi, who filed the plea, submitted that government hospitals are packed to capacity and it has become difficult for a common man to get tested in government laboratories.
The public is forced to fork out up to Rs 4,500 to get Covid-19 test done at private laboratories because of lack of options. Saddling ordinary citizens with such a financial burden effectively deprive them of their accessibility to medical facilities and is violative of Right to Life guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution, the petitioner submitted.
Sudhi also pointed out that there are only 114 designated centres to conduct Covid-19 test in a country that has over 1.3-billion population. He claimed that the lack of an adequate number of testing centres has prevented conducting Covid-19 test in an aggressive manner and could pose a major health hazard for the country in the coming days.
He urged that testing facilities should be ramped up and pathological laboratories accredited with National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) must conduct all Covid-19 tests.
SC wants strict action on price gouging of masks and sanitisers
The SC on Friday asked the Centre to publicise measures taken by it to deal with price gouging of personal protective equipment (PPE) such as masks and hand sanitisers.
A bench of justices L Nageswara Rao and Deepak Gupta said the government to take strict action against those flouting the price control notification issued by the authorities concerned. The apex court disposed of the case after the government told the SC on Friday that it would publicise helpline numbers for customers to reach out if they come across any violation of the price control notification.
The plea by the non-governmental organization (NGO), Justice for Rights Foundation, had claimed that there was a growing rise in demand for masks and sanitisers due to the Covid-19 outbreak. Consequently, chemists and medical shops are taking advantage of the situation and selling such commodities at a price much higher than the maximum retail price (MRP) as well as the price prescribed by the government.
The petitioner had alleged that several chemists and medicine shops, in an attempt to defraud and profit from the unprecedented outbreak, were striking out the MRP of masks and sanitisers and applying their own exorbitant price tags.
The government had come out with notifications and orders declaring facemasks and hand sanitisers as essential commodities and capping their prices.
“The Department of Consumer Affairs, in wake of the need and the urgency of the present condition published a notification dated March 21, fixing the prices of the mask i.e. 2 ply masks to be priced at Rs 8 and 3 ply masks to priced at Rs 10 and that a 200-millilitre bottle of sanitiser to be sold at a price of Rs 100,” the petition pointed out.
The petitioner claimed that despite the notification, medicine shops were still selling masks and sanitisers at higher prices in brazen defiance of the notification.
Kerala –Karnataka border: SC bats for amicable resolution
The SC on Friday issued notice to the Centre and Kerala governments in an appeal filed by Karnataka challenging an April 1 order of Kerala high court (HC) directing the Central government to remove the road blockades erected by Karnataka on the Kerala-Karnataka border.
The apex court did not stay the Kerala HC order but asked the chief secretaries of both the states and the Union health secretary to hold a meeting to arrive at an amicable solution in a bid to ensure movement of vehicles in case of medical emergencies.
The case will be heard next on April 7.
The Karnataka government had blocked the roads, including National Highway 66 connecting the state with Kerala’s northern districts, in its bid to tackle the spread of Covid-19 outbreak. It had erected mud mounds on the roads, preventing all vehicular traffic between the neighbouring states.
Kerala has reported 286 Covid-19 positive cases in the country, and ranks third after Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.
Out of the 286 cases, 129 cases are from the state’s northern-most district, Kasaragod, which shares its borders with Karnataka.
The Kerala High Court Advocates Association had moved Kerala HC against the blockades. On April 1, the HC noted that the national highway network comes under the Central government and had ordered it to remove the blockades.
“We direct the Central government to intervene in the matter and ensure that the blockades erected by Karnataka on the national highways connecting the said state to Kerala, are removed forthwith, and without any further delay, so as to facilitate the free movement of vehicles carrying persons for urgent medical treatment, across the border between the two states,” the HC had directed.
