There should be no laxity in registration of construction workers: HC to AAP govt

The high court suggested to the Board, which comes under the Delhi government, to consider online verification of the applications for registration or its renewal to minimise human to human contact in view of the prevailing pandemic. A bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rajnish Bhatnagar said since the applications were made online, they can be verified the same way by holding interviews via video call.

The Delhi High Court on Friday told the AAP government that there should be "no laxity" in registration of workers with the Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare (BOCWW) Board so that they can get the ex-gratia of Rs 5,000 during the prevailing pandemic. The high court suggested to the Board, which comes under the Delhi government, to consider online verification of the applications for registration or its renewal to minimise human to human contact in view of the prevailing pandemic.

A bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rajnish Bhatnagar said since the applications were made online, they can be verified the same way by holding interviews via video call. The Board, represented by Delhi government additional standing counsel Sanjoy Ghose, said the court's suggestion would be considered.

The Board also told the court that it has accepted the Delhi State Legal Services Authority's (DSLSA) offer of 100 lawyers empanelled with it for verification of the applications at a honorarium of Rs 1,800 per day. It said that it will work out, with DSLSA, the modalities of advocates requirement on per day basis keeping in view availability of the office space and number of workers to be verified each day.

The bench, while leaving this aspect to the two authorities, said the "Board should not lose sight that the exercise is being carried out to expedite the registration of the workers and there should be no laxity". The high court also directed that once the lawyers give their verification report approving registration or renewal, the Board should act upon it and not re-verify the same.

"There should not be another bottleneck after the verification by lawyers," the high court said. Ghose allayed the apprehension, saying there will be no duplication of work.

The high court also directed the Board to, in consultation with DSLSA, prepare a check list or guidelines on the aspects that the authorised advocates will have to follow while scrutinising the applications. The bench also made it clear that authorising the advocates to verify the applications would not amount to employment by the Board.

The high court on July 14 had said that pendency of large number of applications for registration and renewal before the Board "paint a grim picture" as all those labourers would not be receiving the ex-gratia which they are entitled to "in these trying times". It said that the backlog can be cleared within two weeks with the help of around 100 legal aid lawyers offered by the DSLSA for verification of the applications.

However, the Board had expressed difficulty in paying the honorarium of Rs 1,800 per day, as fixed by DSLSA, to each of the advocates. It had said that under the BOCWW Act in any given financial year the payment of salaries and other administrative expenses are not to exceed five per cent of its total expenditure in that financial year and that the payment of honorarium would breach the five per cent statutory limit.

The high court had not agreed with the contention and had it to consider the DSLSA offer. The high court was hearing a PIL by social activist Sunil Kumar Aledia seeking registration of all construction workers here under the BOCWW Act so that they can get the benefit of the relief package of Rs 5,000 per month being provided to each labourer during the lockdown.

Aledia in his plea, filed through advocate Shiven Varma, has contended that only a small section out of the over 10 lakh workers in the city are registered under the laws regulating their welfare and service conditions and thus, a huge chunk of the labourers are not getting benefits actually meant for them. The petition has contended that despite collection of over Rs 2,000 crore under the Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Cess Act in the names of lakhs of workers, only around 37,127 construction labourers who are registered are getting the benefits.

It has also claimed that there has been gross under-registration of construction workers in the national capital since 2015..