In a welfare state, cleanliness for one class of citizens cannot be achieved by engaging others in slavery, the Bombay High Court has said and directed the city civic body to declare 580 of its workers as permanent employees and extend all benefits to them.

A single bench of Justice Milind Jadhav in the judgment in November 2023, made available on Thursday, noted the fundamental right of citizens to a clean environment cannot be achieved by subjugating the fundamental rights of the workers to basic human dignity.

The court was hearing a petition filed by the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM), challenging an order passed by the Industrial Tribunal directing it to create posts for 580 temporary workers.

The tribunal had directed the corporation to declare the 580 workers as permanent and extend all benefits to them.

The workers` union, `Kachara Vahatuk Shramik Sangh`, had sought the civic body to make 580 of its members as permanent staff. They carry out the work of sweeping and cleaning public roads and collection and transportation of garbage.

The HC bench, while dismissing the MCGM`s petition, said quashing the tribunal`s order would be a “travesty of justice”.

The bench noted that the civic body has a mandate to keep Mumbai clean and residents of the city, who pay taxes, have a fundamental right to a clean environment.

“This fundamental right and the mandatory duty cannot be achieved by subjugating the fundamental rights of the workers to basic human dignity. In a welfare state, cleanliness for one class of citizens cannot be achieved by engaging in `slavery` of the others,” the court said.

The HC noted the 580 workers provide the foundation on which the city functions, but instead of acknowledging this and giving them the stability of a permanent tenure, the civic body has taken advantage of its dominant position to exploit the lowest strata of the community.

The workers` union had claimed these 580 workers belong to the marginalised section of society and have no access to bare minimum facilities. Some of them have been working with the civic body since 1996 without any benefits like medical and health insurance, it said.

The bench said these 580 persons have been working with the civic body from 1996-1999 onwards continuously till date.

“While the permanent workers are accorded all the facilities and security of tenure, the working and living conditions of the 580 workers are pitiable. The way they have to live, the manner in which they are made to work is below human dignity,” the HC said.

Many of these workers get injured on duty while handling garbage, develop illnesses and are left to fend for themselves, with almost no medical care, it said.

“They have to manually remove excrement, rotting animals, and ride on the trucks carrying garbage and rotting carcasses. One does not have to go through years of such sub-human existence to complain of exploitation,” the court said. 

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