Orissa High Court Directs State To Furnish List Of Agencies Engaged For Cleaning Of Sewers & Septic Tanks

While expressing concern over death of workers engaged in sanitation works, a Division Bench of Chief Justice Dr. S. Muralidhar and Justice Murahari Sri Raman said:

“The Court wishes to underscore the need to take ‘preventive’ measures so that any deaths in future of persons engaged in cleaning of sewers and septic tanks is avoided.”

The Court was hearing a suo motu Public Interest Litigation (PIL) related to the death of persons employed for manually cleaning sewers, septic tanks etc.

The amicus curiae placed before the Court copies of the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for cleaning of sewers and septic tanks issued in November, 2018 by the Central Public Health and Environmental Engineering Organisation (CPHEEO) in the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Govt. of India.

The purpose of SOP was to "impart the knowledge into the stakeholders about the cleaning of sewers and emptying of septic tanks before and after the assignment".

The court noted that CPHEEO has brought out a training module "for sanitary workers on cleaning of sewers and septic tanks". However, the amicus curiae submitted that the SOP and module are not being followed by the agencies who are engaging persons to undertake the hazardous tasks of sewer and septic tank cleaning through outsourcing.

It was underlined that neither the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 (POEAMSTR Act) nor the Rules made thereunder provide the procedure for manual cleaning and thus, the SOP and the training manual were formulated to fill that vacuum. Those documents provide for the precautions to be taken including protective gear to be used apart from deploying mechanical methods.

Thereafter, the court queried about the outsourcing agencies engaged by the Municipal Corporations, Municipalities and Notified Area Councils (NACs) to undertake the tasks of cleaning sewers and septic tanks. Both the counsels appearing for the State and the Cuttack Municipal Corporation sought time to submit those details before the Court.

“…the Court will be informed whether the SOP as well training manual prepared by the CPHEEO, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Govt. of India has been provided to each agency; whether the strict compliance thereof has been made one of the mandatory conditions of the contract entered into with the agencies and the consequence of non-compliance with the said condition. This be depicted in the form of a chart which will be placed on record with the affidavit,” the Court directed.

The court also noted that a case was filed under Section 304(A)/34 IPC, Section 9 of POEAMSTR Act read with Section 3(1)(h)/3(2)(vii) of SC & ST (POA) Act against two persons of which one was arrested and the other is yet to be arrested. Expressing disappointment over slow progress of investigation in the matter, the Court said:

“The explanation given to the Court about not completing the investigation and not filing the charge sheet is not convincing. Almost two years have elapsed since the incident occurred and the Court fails to appreciate the delay in filing the charge sheet.”

The amicus curiae further pointed out that the affidavit filed by the State is completely silent about the progress of the criminal case in relation to another similar incident which occurred at Bhubaneswar in 2021. Thus, the Court directed the concerned Inspector-in-Charge to file a supplementary affidavit by the next date informing the status of investigation.

“The Court would like to again emphasis that unless there is strict implementation of the 2013 Act by prosecuting the offences committing thereunder, real tangible change cannot happen on the ground,” it cautioned.

Case Title: In Re: Deaths of Sanitation Workers v. Chief Secretary & Ors.

Case No.: W.P.(C) No. 14589 of 2021