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Swaraj Abhiyan (VI) v. Union of India & Ors.

Writ Petition (Civil) · 2018 INSC 547Decided 18 May 2018
Writ Petition (Civil) No. 857 of 2015
Justice Madan B. Lokur · Justice N.V. Ramana

Background

Swaraj Abhiyan, an organisation litigating a series of PILs on the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), raised three implementation concerns in this round: delay in paying wages and compensation to rural workers, reduction in guaranteed "person days" of work through a Centre-State "agreed to labour budget," and the absence of social audits. The Court heard the petitioner's counsel and the Attorney General over several hearings and examined multiple government affidavits on actual fund releases and payment delays.

Decision Breakdown

The Court rejected the challenge to the "agreed to labour budget" process itself, finding it backed by statutory rules (the National Employment Guarantee Fund Rules, 2006) and not an arbitrary cap, especially since many States had actually been allowed to exceed it. On the more serious issue of delayed wages, however, the Court held the law clearly entitles workers to payment within a fortnight of completing work, with automatic compensation for delay, and it rejected the Centre's position that its responsibility ended once it approved the payment order: bureaucratic bottlenecks were "simply not acceptable" as an excuse. It directed the Ministry of Rural Development to prepare and implement an urgent, time-bound programme to ensure timely payment of wages and compensation, and closed out all issues in this phase of the litigation.

Lesson Learnt

Rural workers under MGNREGA have a clear legal right to be paid within 15 days of doing the work, with automatic compensation for any delay: neither the Central nor State Government can shift the blame to the other to avoid paying on time.

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

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