Judgment :-

K.S. Radhakrishnan, J.

1. Through this Public Litigation, the petitioner has brought to the notice of this Court tell-tale miseries of bonded labourers in our country and their exploitation and the necessity of identifying and checking the practice of bonded labour in this country and to rehabilitate those who are victims of this practice.

2. This Court, while interpreting the provision of the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976, (for short ‘the BLS (A) Act) in the light of the constitutional provision like Article 23, The Minimum Wages Act 1948, Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act 1970, Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act 1979, The Mines Act 1952 gave various directions including the setting up of Vigilance Committees, District Magistrates, etc. for the purpose of identifying and freeing bonded labourers and to draw up a scheme or programme for a better and more meaningful rehabilitation of the freed bonded labourers and to ensure implementation of the BLS (A), Act, 1976. In Bandhua Mukti Morcha v. Union of India (1984) 3 SCC 161, Neerja Chaudhary v. State of M.P. (1984) 3 SCC 243 this Court took the view