A view of the Calcutta High Court in Kolkata. File.
| Photo Credit: Sushanta Patronobish
In a historic judgement, the Calcutta High Court ordered the payment of ₹30 lakh as compensation for the death of four men during manual scavenging, where three other workers were also injured. The case dates back to 2021, in which the West Bengal State government and Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) to pay the family of the deceased and injured victims.
The order passed on November 21 has stated “The current equivalent of that amount is ₹30 lakhs. This shall be the amount to be paid, by concerned agency, i.e, the union, the union territory or the state as the case may be… The court hereby direct the union and states to ensure that the compensation for sewer deaths is increased (given that the previous amount fixed i.e., ₹10 lakhs) was made applicable from 1993.”
The judgement was passed by the division bench of Chief Justice Sujoy Paul and Justice Chaitali Chatterjee Das. The bench noted that such deaths were “disheartening” to witness at this age in the country.
“This issue is a stark reminder of the countries ongoing struggle to ensure basic human dignity and rights for all citizens despite significant progress in various fields. Manual scavenging is a grave, human right, concern and its persistence is a blot on the nation’s conscience,” the order further added.
The court also noted that to stop this inhuman work the Government of India brought an act (Prohibition of Employment as manual scavengers and their rehabilitation act 2013), to stop this “evil” system from functioning in the country.
The division bench also said that there was “serious lacunas and negligence on the part of the respondent authorities.”
According to the court order, ₹5 lakh is to be paid to each of the victims families who have suffered grave injuries. The amount is to be disbursed with two months of the order.
The ₹30 lakh compensation (minus ₹10 lakhs already paid) is to be disbursed within three months of the court order. The court has also asked the State to form a committee and run an independent investigation into the incident of death and injury of the workers and submit a report within four weeks.
The Public Interest Litigation which led to this judgement was filed by the Association for Protection of Democratic Rights, one of the largest civil and human rights groups in West Bengal.
The four workers all hailing from West Bengal’s Malda district were working under the Kolkata Environment Infrastructure Improvement Project (KEIIP), a contractor hired by the KMC and were desilting the sewers when the accident happened which led to their death.
The workers died or sustained injuries after inhaling the toxic fumes in the sewer. The four deceased were identified as Sabir Hossain (19), Mohammad Alamgir (35), Jahangir Alam (22), and Liyakat Ali (20).
Earlier this year in February 2, 2025, three workers died in the Bantala area of the Kolkata Leather Complex. The deceased workers were identified as Farzem Sheikh, Hashi Sheikh, and Suman Sardar, all residents of West Bengal’s Murshidabad district.
The tragedy happened only four days after the Supreme Court on January 29, 2025 ordered a complete stop to the practice of manual scavenging and hazardous manual cleaning of sewers and septic tanks in metros across the country.
Published – November 25, 2025 11:49 am IST
