Now Reading: Bombay HC orders Rs 30 lakh for kin of sanitation workers
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Bombay HC orders Rs 30 lakh for kin of sanitation workers
The Bombay high court has struck down a government resolution that let the state avoid paying compensation to sanitation workers who died while cleaning septic tanks and sewers if they were employed…
The Story in Brief
The Bombay high court has struck down a government resolution that let the state avoid paying compensation to sanitation workers who died while cleaning septic tanks and sewers if they were employed by private contractors. The court ordered the Maharashtra government to pay Rs 30 lakh to the dependants of each such deceased worker, following a 2025 Supreme Court judgment. It gave the state six months to identify all eligible persons.
The petition, filed by a workers' union and the father of a man who died in Mumbra in 2022, argued that a 2019 government rule illegally shifted liability to private housing societies instead of the state. Justices Bharati Dangre and Manjusha Deshpande set aside the discriminatory rule and directed that four named workers' families must get compensation from Thane Municipal Corporation. The state can later recover the amount from private employers.
The Indian Opinion
The state's attempt to wash its hands of compensation by calling private employers liable was always a dodge. It let public bodies off the hook while the poorest workers died cleaning other people's filth. The court has rightly ended that discrimination, but the harder part begins now. Will the Maharashtra government actually identify every deceased worker within six months, or will families face fresh paperwork hurdles? The number of claims paid by the deadline will be the real test of this order.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
