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 that failure to rehabilitate freed bonded labourers would violate Articles 21 and 23 of the Constitution. In P. Sivaswamy v. State of Andha Pradesh (1988) 4 SCC 466 this Court held that the grant of financial assistance by the States of Rs.738/- per family of the released bonded labourers was inadequate for rehabilitation. Court held that the States, employers have a duty to rehabilitate the released bonded labourers.

3. This Court, dealing while dealing with this case, passed an interim order dated 13th May, 1994, (reported in (1994) 5 SCC 116) and gave various directions which are as under:

“(1) To identify the bonded labourers and update the existing list of such bonded labourers as well as to identify the villages where this practice is prevalent.

(2) To identify the employers exploiting the bonded labourers and to initiate appropriate criminal proceedings against such employers.

(3) To extinguish/discharge any existing debt and or bonded liability and to ensure them an alternative means of livelihood.

(4) To appoint an independent body such as a local non-political social action group to collect independent information and details of— (a) the prevalence of the exploitative practice of bonded labour and

(b) employers or their agents perpetrating the wilful violation of the law by encouraging and abetting the practice of bonded labour.

(5) To provide employment to such bonded labourers as agricultural workers at the prescribed minimum wage rate and/or provide the landless bonded labourers with agricultural land, with a view to ensure an alternative means of livelihood.

(6) To provide adequate shelter, food, education to the children of the bonded labourers and medical facilities to the bonded labourers and their families as part of a rehabilitation package.

(7) To ensure—

(a) regular inspection by the Labour Commissioner concerned to keep the contractors who have in the past employed bonded labourers under watch,

(b) setting up of Vigilance Committees in each district,

(c) the District Magistrates concerned to send quarterly reports to the Supreme Court Legal Aid Committee or to any Commissioner appointed by the court for this purpose,

(d) the setting up of rural credit facilities such as grameen banks, cooperatives etc. from which short-term interest free loans can be availed without security, since the root cause of bonded labour seems to be the lack of availability of funds (credit through an institutional network).

(8) To initiate criminal prosecution against the contractors/employers or their agents who engage bonded labour and employ children below the age of 14 without adequate monetary compensation by paying wages below the minimum wage rate, as prescribed under the Minimum Wages Act.

(9) To initiate criminal prosecution against those employers, contract