SC Issues Notice in Suo Motu Case on Migrant Workers Conditions

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday issued a notice to the Centre in a suo motu case taken up on a letter-petition of Trinamool congress member of parliament Mahua Moitra about the condition of migrant workers during the lockdown period.

The matter was taken up on Friday by a division bench of the Supreme Court comprising of Justices L Nageswara Rao and Deepak Gupta. The case had been listed for hearing after Moitra, an MP from Krishnanagar, West Bengal, had written to chief justice S.A. Bobde, with annexures of messages from stranded workers.

The Supreme Court bench directed that a copy of the petition should be served on Solicitor General Tushar Mehta. The next hearing is slated for April 7.

Moitra had written that she had received over 300 calls for help from migrant workers from her constituency who had gone to work in distant places like Kerala, Gujarat and Delhi and were unable to sustain their livelihood after the lockdown began on March 25.

My letter-petition to the Supreme Court of India concerning welfare of migrant workers due to #COVID19 lockdown listed to be heard on 3/4/20

I will be appearing as Petitioner in Person. pic.twitter.com/fy1s0BopRa

— Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) April 1, 2020

“These poor workers, some of them employed at construction sites and others in factories, are thousands of kilometres away from their homes and live in extreme penury,” she said in the letter.

Moitra asked for directions from the Supreme Court for government agencies to make proper arrangements for welfare of migrant workers and to order employers to release their wages.

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