Chennai Corporation conservancy workers’ protest: Madras High Court to hear writ petition on August 13

The Madras High Court on Monday (August 11, 2025) adjourned to Wednesday (August 13) the hearing on a writ petition filed by Uzhaippor Urimai Iyakkam (UUI) to quash a resolution passed by the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) on June 16, 2025, for outsourcing sanitary work in Zone 6 to Telangana-based Delhi MSW Solutions Limited, a private entity.

Justice K. Surender deferred the hearing after Advocate General (A-G) P.S. Raman requested some time to file a fresh counter affidavit. The A-G said, he had made certain corrections to a counter affidavit, already served on the petitioner’s counsel, and the fresh counter affidavit had to be signed by the Corporation Commissioner.

During the preliminary arguments on Monday, there was a heated exchange of words, with the petitioner’s counsel stating that nearly 2,000 conservancy workers had been protesting on the roads for over 10 days against the GCC’s engagement of a private contractor to carry out sanitary work in Zone 6, while the civic body continued to turn a deaf ear.

Workers ‘thrown out like garbage’

“I am arguing a case as well as a cause. Two thousand people are on the streets. They have been thrown out like garbage. They (GCC) are treating sanitary workers like garbage. They cannot do this to Aruthathiyar, Adi Dravidars, and women. It has now become a battle between David and Goliath,” the petitioner’s counsel told the court.

He went on to state: “We (sanitary workers) are the little people. The Constitution is for us. Let them (GCC) serve the Constitution, not the contractors.”

Denying the charges, the A-G said, the sanitary workers were in safe hands and nothing adverse to their interests had happened. He said, everything would be explained in the counter affidavit.

Denying the A-G’s claim of the sanitary workers being safe, the petitioner’s counsel insisted on issuing an interim injunction restraining the GCC from outsourcing the services of the temporary sanitary workers, originally appointed under the National Urban Livelihood Mission and through self-help groups, in Zone 6.

After hearing them for a while, the judge decided to grant time for filing a fresh counter affidavit and hear the matter next on Wednesday. The petitioner organisation’s president K. Bharathi had filed an affidavit stating its members were serving as temporary sanitary workers in Zones 5, 6, and 7 of the GCC.

Petitioner’s affidavit

The deponent claimed the GCC had no authority whatsoever to outsource sanitary work to private contractors, and that it must be done either through permanent or temporary workers engaged by it directly. He also contended the temporary workers had every right to be absorbed in permanent vacancies.

He contended that though Section 82 of the Chennai City Municipal Corporation Act of 1919 empowers the civic body to call for tenders for execution of any work or supply of any material or goods, the term ‘any work’ must be read conjunctively, and not disjunctively, with the words ‘any material or goods.’

Further, stating that an industrial dispute had been raised with respect to outsourcing sanitary work in Zone 6 and the State government had referred the dispute to the Industrial Tribunal for adjudication on July 28, 2025, the deponent claimed the sanitary work could not be outsourced without the permission of the tribunal.

CJ’s Bench

In the meantime, an advocate made a mention before the first Division Bench of Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice Sunder Mohan regarding reported traffic disruption being caused due to the sanitary workers protesting outside the Ripon Buildings, housing the GCC head office.

The advocate claimed even ambulances were slowed down on the road opposite the Corporation office due to the protests, and sought an early hearing of a public interest litigation petition to be filed by him during the course of the day. The judges agreed to hear the matter on Tuesday (August 12).