The Supreme Court has given a big statement regarding the cases of deaths due to manual scavenging. Making a strong comment on this matter, the court said that if compensation was not given before the decision of October, 2023, then in such cases the state and union territories will have to pay a compensation of Rs 30 lakh.
The court clarified last week on Tuesday (January 20, 2026) that the cases in which compensation of Rs 10 lakh has been given before the 2023 verdict, will not be reopened. This clarification came because different High Courts of the country were implementing this 2023 order in different ways and there was no uniform standard in matters related to compensation.
Supreme Court’s order came on NALSA’s petition
This order of the Supreme Court came on January 20 on the petition of National Legal Services Authority (NALSA), in which contradictory decisions of different High Courts were cited. Some High Courts of the country, while reopening already settled cases, increased the compensation from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 30 lakh, while some flatly refused to do so.
What did advocate Rashmi Nandkumar say on the matter?
Advocate Rashmi Nandkumar, appearing for NALSA, said that due to such difference of opinions only two possibilities came to the fore. First, if the dependents of a person who died during manual scavenging or hazardous cleaning work before October 20, 2023, have received compensation of Rs 10 lakh, then they will be entitled to an additional Rs 20 lakh. Whereas the other possibility is that they will not get any additional compensation.
At the same time, senior advocate K., who is assisting as amicus curiae in the Supreme Court. Parameshwara said that compensation of Rs 10 lakh was given as per an earlier decision of March 2014. He argued that if that decision has been followed, then such cases should not be allowed to be reopened. However, he also said that if the death occurred before the 2023 decision, but their dependents have not received any compensation yet, then such cases should be looked into under the new compensation system.
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