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The Delhi High Court has recently directed the Delhi Government to make efforts to pay an additional Rs. 20 Lakh compensation to the families of sanitation workers who died due to manual scavenging.
The high court passed the order in terms of the Supreme Court order passed last year. The families had been granted Rs. 10 lakh in compensation by the authorities. Justice Subramonium Prasad said, " This Court expects that the State will endeavour to pay the balance of Rs. 20 lakh to all similarly placed persons instead of forcing the family members of persons who have lost their lives in manual scavenging toapproach this Court by filing writ petitions." "It is well settled that when a person approaches a court and gets a declaration of law in his favour, it is expected that the state shall extend the same benefit to all similarly situated persons without forcing those persons to approach the court of law," said Justice Prasad in the order dated January 29, 2024. The high court said that the Petitioners ought to have been granted the same benefit of an additional Rs. 20 lakhs in terms of the judgment passed by the Apex Court in Balram Singh v. Union of India. The High Court allowed the petition moved by Maya Kaur and others and directed the authorities to pay the said amount within six weeks from today. The petitioner Maya Kaur and others moved the Court for a direction to the Respondents to pay a sum of Rs.20 lakh to the Petitioners in terms of the judgment passed by the Apex Court in Balram Singh v. Union of India, 2023. The Petitioners are the widows of workers who lost their lives in manual scavenging. It was stated that the State Government under its policy has given a sum of Rs. 10 lakhs to the family of the persons who have died in between, including the Petitioners. The Supreme Court had directed the Union and the States to ensure that the compensation for sewer deaths is increased (the previous amount fixed was Rs. 10 lakhs) was made applicable from 1993. The current equivalent of that amount is Rs. 30 lakhs. This shall be the amount to be paid by the concerned agency, i.e., the Union, the Union Territory or the State, as the case may be. In other words, compensation for sewer deaths shall be Rs. 30 lakhs. If the dependents of any victim have not been paid such an amount, the above amount shall be payable to them. Furthermore, this shall be the amount to be hereafter paid, as compensation, the Supreme Court said. (ANI)
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