Extremely unfortunate that 5,000 construction workers in Mumbai not registered: Apex court
New Delhi: The Supreme Court Monday said it was "extremely unfortunate" that around 5,000 construction workers in Mumbai were not registered under an Act meant for their welfare and directed the Maharashtra government to take action against builders and contractors in this regard.
A bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur asked the state government to identify the contractors and builders who have employed these 5,000 construction workers without they being registered and directed the slum rehabilitation authority to ensure compliance of the provisions of the Act.
The apex court observed that due to non-registration, these construction workers would not get benefit of the provisions of the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996.
The bench, which also comprised justices S Abdul Nazeer and Deepak Gupta, perused a note placed before it by the state government as per which at least 53,270 construction workers were working at sites in Mumbai.
The state, while making it clear that 48,488 such construction workers were registered under the 1996 Act, told the bench that this figure did not include workers in the schemes approved by the slum rehabilitation authority.
"The admitted position, therefore, is that there are about 5,000 construction workers who are working, but they have not been registered by the employer/contractor," the bench said.
"This is an extremely unfortunate situation because due to the non-registration of these construction workers, they will not get the benefit of the provisions of the Act and on the contrary, cess will (hopefully) be collected from the contractors/builders but utilized for a purpose other than the benefit of the construction workers," it said.
The bench further said, "Under these circumstances, we direct the state of Maharashtra to identify the contractors/builders who have employed these roughly 5,000 construction workers without they being registered and take punitive action against the builders/contractors".
