New Delhi, Aug 5 (PTI) The Delhi High Court Thursday sought the Centre's response on a petition to ensure strict compliance with the 2013 law on manual scavengers to prevent loss of lives due to manual cleaning of sewers and septic tanks.

A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh allowed lawyer and social activist Amit Sahni's application for impleading the Centre as a party to his petition and granted time for filing the counter affidavit.

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“We are allowing this application. We are joining Union of India as party respondent. Notice upon the newly joined party,” said the court as it listed the matter for hearing on September 17.

In his application seeking impleadment, Sahni had referred to the recent statement of Minister of State (MoS) for Social Justice and empowerment, Ramdas Athawale, during the 254th session of Rajya Sabha that “no such deaths have been reported due to manual scavenging” in the last five years.

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Athawale made the statement in a written response to a question asked in the Rajya Sabha, by Mallikarjun Kharge and L Hanumanthaiah, on manual scavenging, the deaths due to it in the last five years, and rehabilitation of manual scavengers.

Sahni claimed that the answer given by the MoS before the Upper House of the Parliament was “not only false and misleading but shows utter insensitivity and apathy” towards the departed souls of the manual scavengers, their families and others who are still into this work.

“The Union of India is responsible both for making the policy of the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and Their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 and its implementation thereafter in every State and UT which makes the Union of India a necessary party to this petition,” the application said.

The application further stated that the concerned ministry had earlier in February this year submitted that “340 deaths have been caused due to manual scavenging during the last five years” which is an antithesis to the unstarred question raised in the Upper House.

Besides the Delhi government, the high court had earlier asked municipal bodies, Delhi Jal Board, Delhi Cantonment Board and Public Works Department to file their affidavits to the petition.

The court had remarked that the government spent so much money on election advertisements and it should spend some amount on sensitising people about manual scavenging as so many people die due to this practice every year.

Another petition of 2007 relating to rehabilitation of manual scavengers is also pending in the high court which had termed as "disgraceful" the existence of manual scavenging in the city despite a law prohibiting such a practice.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)