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In Re: Problems and Miseries of Migrant Labourers

Writ Petition (Civil) · 2021 INSC 315Decided 29 Jun 2021
Writ Petition (Civil) No. 6 of 2020
Justice Ashok Bhushan · Justice M.R. Shah

Background

The Supreme Court had taken suo motu (on its own motion) cognizance in May 2020 of the plight of migrant workers who were forced to walk long distances on foot after the nationwide Covid-19 lockdown left them jobless and stranded far from home. Over successive hearings the Court had already issued directions on transportation, shelter and food for migrant workers, and this judgment followed up on how well the Centre and States were implementing those earlier directions, with affidavits filed by the Union, all States/UTs, and several intervenors highlighting continuing gaps such as unregistered migrant workers being unable to access welfare schemes.

Decision Breakdown

The Court reviewed state-by-state compliance on registration of unorganised/migrant workers, distribution of dry ration, community kitchens, and the "One Nation One Ration Card" scheme, and found continuing implementation gaps, particularly because many eligible migrant workers remained unregistered and so could not access benefits. It directed the Central Government to develop and operationalise, with the National Informatics Centre, a national portal (the NDUW Project) for registering unorganised/migrant labourers, mandated completion of worker registration nationwide by 31 December 2021, directed States to bring in schemes for dry-ration distribution by 31 July 2021, required States that had not yet done so to implement "One Nation One Ration Card" by the same date, and directed States to continue running community kitchens at locations with large numbers of migrant labourers for as long as the pandemic continued. It declined to direct any specific scheme of direct cash/bank transfers to migrant workers, holding that was a matter of state policy unless an existing scheme already created such an entitlement.

Lesson Learnt

When courts supervise implementation of welfare directions during a crisis, they can set concrete deadlines and institutional mechanisms (like a national worker-registration portal) to make rights real on the ground, but they generally stop short of dictating specific financial policy choices like cash-transfer amounts, which remain within the government's domain.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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