20 Lawyers Including Kapil Sibal, Prashant Bhushan, Chidambaram Wrote Late-Night Letter To SC On Migrant Workers

Twenty eminent lawyers including Kapil Sibal, P Chidambaram, Prashant Bhushan and Indira Jaisingh wrote a late-night letter to the Chief Justice of India over the issue of migrant workers in the country, Times of India has reported.

The Times of India report speculates whether this letter “help change the court’s reluctance to entertain PILs” on migrant workers. The letter signed by the 20 lawyers was mailed by Jaisingh to CJI Bobade at 10.34 PM on Monday (25 May).

The report claims that the letter accused the Supreme Court of “exhibiting symptoms of its Emergency-time mindset” and “failure to intervene” over the issue of migrant workers.

The letter alleged that the court’s “failure to intervene” in March resulted in migrant workers being unable to go to their hometowns and remaining in “cramped quarters” which left them at a higher risk of Covid-19 infection.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday (26 May) took suo motu cognisance of problems of migrant labourers who were stranded in different parts of the country during the nationwide lockdown to contain Covid-19 outbreak.

The apex court said it has also received several letters and representations from different sections of society highlighting the problem of migrant labourers.

The court also instructed the centre and all states, union territories to submit their responses over the steps taken in this matter.