Summary
During the second COVID-19 wave, the Court directed coordinated measures to secure food and welfare access for migrant and unorganised workers. It required the registration portal to commence by 31 July 2021 and registration to finish by 31 December 2021, State dry-ration schemes, additional central grain allocations, nationwide ration-card portability and community kitchens. It also required enforcement of migrant-worker establishment and contractor registration. It declined to prescribe a new direct cash-transfer benefit, preserving entitlements under existing schemes.
Issues
- What food-security and registration measures were necessary for migrant workers during the pandemic.
- Whether a general direct cash-transfer direction should issue irrespective of an existing scheme.
Provisions considered
- Article 21, Constitution of IndiaDignified life and basic necessities, including food, informed the governments' duty to protect impoverished migrant workers. (¶¶ 17, 24, 29, 32, 33, 34)
- Section 9, National Food Security Act, 2013The Centre was called upon to undertake fresh determination of rural and urban coverage rather than continue relying solely on the older population coverage exercise. (¶¶ 40, 80(v))
- Section 10, Unorganised Workers' Social Security Act, 2008Registration and portable identification were essential to meaningful access to welfare schemes; registration under the then-operative framework had to continue pending the new Code's enforcement. (¶¶ 49, 50, 75, 76, 80(i))
- Sections 12 and 13, Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996Beneficiary registration and identification were part of the existing statutory machinery that had to operate to deliver welfare benefits. (¶¶ 47, 50, 75, 76)
Held
- The Centre had to develop and implement the national registration portal with States and Union Territories by 31 July 2021, and registration was to finish no later than 31 December 2021. Contractors and other concerned actors were to cooperate; data correction and updating had to remain possible. (¶¶ 75, 76, 80(i))
- States had to formulate appropriate dry-ration schemes for migrant labourers, implement them by 31 July 2021 and continue them during the pandemic. The Centre had to allocate additional grain as demanded for those schemes; absence of ration cards did not excuse abandoning vulnerable migrants. (¶¶ 24, 25, 29, 31, 33, 34, 80(ii), 80(iii))
- States still outside One Nation One Ration Card had to implement it by 31 July 2021 so eligible migrants could access statutory rations at their work destination. The Centre was also to reconsider statutory population coverage. (¶¶ 35, 36, 37, 38, 40, 80(iv), 80(v))
- States and Union Territories had to register covered establishments, license contractors and ensure compliance with duties to furnish migrant-worker particulars under the 1979 Act. (¶¶ 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 80(vi))
- Community kitchens at prominent migrant-worker locations were to feed those without means for two meals daily and continue at least throughout the pandemic; their locations should be publicised. (¶¶ 77, 78, 80(vii))
- No general cash-transfer mandate was issued: such transfers depended on policy and the relevant scheme. Persons entitled under an existing scheme could claim through its prescribed mechanism. No further transportation direction was required on the material presented. (¶¶ 21, 79)
Result
Both writ petitions disposed of with the specified registration, foodgrain, ration-portability, statutory-enforcement and community-kitchen directions; no new general direct cash-transfer benefit ordered.