Madras High Court adjourns PIL on manual scavenging

Chennai: Madras High Court on Friday said the exercise to change penalty clause for illegal sewage connections and letting sewage into storm water drains should be completed at least by June end.

First bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice MM Sundresh made the observation after perusing an affidavit filed by the Principal Secretary of state Municipal Administration and Water Supply Department in this regard.

"All that it states is that the amendment proposed for increase of fines is under active consideration of the government and it involves the Legislative process/ Administrative Procedures and thus the considerable time for implementation," it said.

Stating that it really do not understand what the great legislative change which was required for increasing the fine amount, the bench also said the time frame had not been specified.

We would have required this exercise to be completed at the earliest on the ground reality in view of the pending election does not permit this to be done and thus we call for the exercise to be completed at least by the end of June 2016, the Judges said.

The matter relates to a PIL filed by Change India, an NGO represented by its director A Narayanan, to prevent manual scavenging and to award compensation to the families of the deceased involved in the work.

The bench also perused and placed the draft amendment with regard to the change of penalty provisions and posted the matter to April 15.