Court helping poor can't be seen as sword over head, Telangana HC tells SCR

HYDERABAD: Turning down a request to close the cases against South Central Railway in respect of shifting the migrant workers to their native states, the Telangana high court on Friday objected to the usage of Damocles' sword phrase allegedly hanging over the heads of SCR officials. SCR counsel Pushpender Kaur used this phrase while asking the court to close the public interest pleas as SCR has been extending its cooperation in sending the workers back to their places.
A bench of Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice B Vijaysen Reddy told her that a court which is exercising its jurisdiction under article 226 of the Constitution to ensure justice to migrants should never be seen as a sword over somebody's head.
The bench whose intervention and monitoring has forced the officials from the railways and the state government to think of innovative ways to help the stranded workers said that it would monitor the case of workers till the last migrant labourer is sent home. "Who knows there may be fresh wave of migrants soon," the CJ said while hearing two public interest litigations filed by social activist Professor Rama S Melkote, seeking safe transport to migrants, and by S Jeevan Kumar of Human Rights Forum (HRF) seeking shifting of brick kiln workers to their native regions in Odisha.
Thanking the intervention of the court, Vasudha Nagaraj, the counsel for the petitioners told the court that, in the last two days, the state and SCR had provided safe train transport to as many as 418 migrants. "Only 20 migrants are remaining in the shelter at Secunderabad station. All the brick kiln workers have already been sent home," she said.
"We are witnessing a fresh surge of Covid-19 cases in Secunderabad and if we allow the migrants unattended to at this stage, this may pose a threat to the public health and hence the arrangement may be continued for some more time," she requested. It was at this stage, Pushpender Kaur intervened.
"We will continue to extend our cooperation. But please close the two PILs. Or at least close the cases against us, she said describing them as swords of Damocles hanging above their heads.
Advocate general BS Prasad told the court that the state is ready to continue the effort to help the migrants and urged the court to continue the arrangement. "We are committed to helping the stranded migrants," he said. The bench closed the PIL pertaining to brick kiln workers and made it clear that the other PIL on general migrants would continue and that it will continue to monitor the progress.