Former Law Minister and senior advocate Kapil Sibal says it is a matter of opinion whether the Supreme Court should have stepped in previously on the migrant workers’ issue but individuals can criticise the top court for not dealing with the problem earlier. Excerpts from an unique interview.
The Supreme Court took suo motu notification of the migrant workers’ issue and offered instructions to the Centre. However many jurists, most especially retired Justice A. P. Shah, stated it “failed to satisfactorily acknowledge that the basic rights of migrant labourers have been broken”. Don’t you think the Court should have stepped in earlier?
To Start With, I welcome the suo motu notice by the Supreme Court on the issue of the predicament of migrant employees, a lot of whom are still waiting to reach their homes in addition to those who are still strolling numerous kilometres in the hope of joining their households. That the Supreme Court need to have remembered of their plight earlier and stepped in is a matter of opinion.
Retired Judges have actually suggested that the concerns of migrant workers, the conditions in which they discovered themselves pursuant to the Prime Minister revealing a lockdown on March 24, 2020 need to have convinced the court to use up concerns gave their notice by public-spirited people. That there could not have actually been any personal inspiration in moving the Supreme Court is clear.
Although no political celebration had moved the court, I believe that all stakeholders concerned, in the light of a brewing humanitarian crisis, do deserve to bring realities to the notification of the court. It is for the court to then apply its mind and decide whether or not to continue even more. The choice not to interfere earlier and to have actually accepted the Lawyer General’s declaration that there were no migrants on the road is certainly a decision that is open to criticism. There is nothing unfortunate in making that criticism. People do deserve to criticise the court for it not to have actually addressed the iss