New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday said the plea to enforce the fundamental rights of people trafficked as bonded labourers was not an adversarial one.
Justices B R Gavai and Augustine George Masih made the observation after Attorney General R Venkataramani said pursuant to the apex court's November 21, 2024 direction, a committee was formed and recommendations were made on the issue.
In its November 2024 order, the top court asked the Centre to convene a meeting with all the states and union territories to come up with a proposal to address the issue over the inter-state trafficking of bonded labourers and grant of release certificates.
On Friday, Venkataramani said the Centre filed an affidavit and said a committee was constituted and some recommendations were made on the issue. "This is not an adversarial litigation," said the bench.
The petitioners' counsel said they would give their suggestions in the matter following which the bench posted the hearing after two weeks.
In its November 2024 order, the bench noted the submissions of the petitioners' counsel that various difficulties arose regarding the immediate financial assistance to the bonded labourers, including rescued and released children.
The bench said the figures were alarming for Uttar Pradesh as of the 5,264 bonded labourers released, only 1,101 received immediate financial assistance whereas 4,167 didn't.
It said the issue of inter-state trafficking of bonded labourers, including children, needed to be addressed by the Centre and all the states and union territories and a unified approach could be adopted.
"The secretary, Ministry of Labour and Employment should convene a meeting with their counterparts from all the States/UTs to come out with a proposal which addresses the issue regarding inter-state trafficking and grant of release certificate," it had said. The bench had requested the attorney general to assist it in the matter.
In July 2022, the apex court agreed to hear the petition and sought responses from the Centre, the National Human Rights Commission and some states and union territories on the plea seeking enforcement of fundamental rights of people trafficked as bonded labourers.
One of the petitioners said he and some other bonded workers were rescued and released on February 28, 2019, from a brick kiln in Shahjahanpur district in UP before being trafficked by an unregistered contractor from their native in Bihar's Gaya district.
The petitioner said he and his fellow workers were forced to work without the payment of minimum statutory wages and their fundamental rights to movement and employment were severely curtailed.
