Payment of wages to migrant workers during Coronavirus lockdown: Supreme Court issues notice in PIL by Harsh Mander and Anjali Bhardwaj

The Supreme Court today issued notice in a petition seeking a direction to the Central and state governments to ensure payment of wages to all the migrant workers, whether self-employed or otherwise, during the period of the Coronavirus lockdown.The Centre has to file its response before April 7, when the next hearing is scheduled to be held..The plea was filed by former bureaucrat Harsh Mander and RTI activist Anjali Bhardwaj seeking a direction to the Centre and the states to ensure payment of wages to all migrant workers amidst the Coronavirus lockdown. The Bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and Deepak Gupta heard the matter via video conferencing today..The Bench observed that it was particularly concerned about the plight of migrant workers in the unorganised sector..[Coronavirus Lockdown] Garib Kalyan Yojana and the Toiling Poor.The petitioners stated that they have approached the Supreme Court to enforce the fundamental rights of migrant workers who are severely affected by the 21-day nationwide lockdown ordered by the Central government in view of the COVID-19 outbreak..It is the petitioners' case that the March 29 order passed by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India was not the correct or adequate response to the large scale exodus of migrant workers effected by the lockdown. This order had directed employers to pay wages to the migrant workers and for their landlords not to evict them for want of rent amid lockdown..Coronavirus Lockdown: PIL moved before Supreme Court to ensure payments of wages to all the migrant workers.It is asserted that instead of the employers, the central and state authorities must ensure wages to these migrant workers at the place where they are currently present under the lockdown..The petition reads,"The government must...ensure that the wages are paid to migrant workers at the place that they are presently located during the lockdown, whether in their home state or in shelter homes or in the state where they had migrated to before the lockdown...".It is further contended that the Disaster Management Act obliges the Central and state governments to put in place a detailed plan and machinery to deal with and mitigate the effects of disasters such as COVID-19, and extend all help to the victims..The petitioners, therefore, also seek a direction to the Central and state governments to immediately activate National and State Advisory Committees of experts in the field of disaster management and public health, and prepare national and state disaster management plans to deal with COVID-19 in terms of the Disaster Management Act, 2005..The petition was drawn by Advocate Cheryl D’Souza and the petitioners were represented by Advocate Prashant Bhushan..The Union Home Ministry had earlier issued an advisory to all states and union territories urging them to make adequate arrangements including food and shelter for migrant and industrial workers, and workers from other unorganized sectors during the Coronavirus lockdown..[Coronavirus Lockdown] MHA issues advisory to provide essentials for stranded migrant workers, students from other states.More recently, the MHA had instructed state authorities to ensure that borders are effectively closed and that people do not move across these boundaries during the lockdown put in place to curb the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19)..[Coronavirus Lockdown] No movement across cities, Landlords cannot take rent from workers including migrants for one month: MHA.Read Petition