A manual scavenger (File photo)

NEW DELHI: Expressing concern over death of manual scavengers in the country —one every 5 days as per some estimates —the Supreme Court on Wednesday pulled up the government for not ensuring safety gear for them and said those responsible must be booked and arrested in such cases.

Holding manual scavenging as “the most uncivilised and inhuman” practice, the court said nowhere in the world people are sent inside gas chambers without masks and oxygen cylinders. It said such practice is against the spirit of the Constitution and lamented that untouchability continues to prevail even after seven decades of independence.

“Humans cannot be treated this way. It is most inhuman and uncivilised as 4-5 people die every month. Why do you not provide them masks and oxygen cylinder. You will not see in any other country that a person is going into gas chamber without mask,” a bench of Justices Arun Mishra, M R Shah and B R Gavai told attorney general K K Venugopal while hearing the Centre’s plea seeking review of the apex court’s verdict by which some stringent provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act were diluted and provision of anticipatory bail was introduced in the law.

Agreeing with the bench’s anxiety, Venugopal said law of torts is not followed in the country to fix liability in such cases, including in road accidents caused by potholes. He told the bench that there is not a single case where the culprit had been punished for the death of a manual scavenger. “Case should be filed against supervisor and officials. They have collected taxes from people to make roads and cover the sewer and if it is not done, top officials should be charged if accidents happens. There is not a single case where magistrate has taken any cognisance. Nothing has been done in such cases,” the AG said.

The court said in such case, those responsible must be arrested forthwith and said governments over the years had failed to protect the rights of manual scavengers. “You have not been able to protect their rights. You have to take care of their rights. Everyone in this country is equal and there can be no discrimination on the basis of caste,” the bench told the Centre and said it will pass order on the issue.

The AG said caste system is deeply entrenched in the society and discrimination on the basis of caste is happening on a day-to-day basis. The court thereafter reserved its order on the Centre’s review petition and indicated that it will also pass orders both on government’s plea and manual scavenging next week.

The bench also hinted that grounds of misuse of the SC/ST Act, which was relied upon by the apex court while diluting the Act, are not justified as any law can be misused by unscrupulous elements and false complaint are being filed even under Indian Penal Code .

Expressing concern over rampant misuse of Act, the SC had in March last year stepped in to provide safeguards to innocent people and directed that there would be no automatic arrest on a complaint filed under the Act without holding preliminary inquiry and introduced the provision of anticipatory bail under the Act. But the Centre amended the law to nullify the verdict which has also been challenged in the court.

