The Supreme Court on Friday, 11th June, observed that every state must mandatorily implement the “One Nation Ration Card” which prevents discrimination and enables migrants to get ration benefits from any part of the country, irrespective of the place where their card is originally from.
This order came after Counsels for Maharashtra and Punjab informed the Court that they had implemented the scheme. When the Counsel for West Bengal appeared and stated before the court that an ongoing seeding issue prevents them from implementing the same.
The bench consisted of justices Ashok Bhushan and MR Shah. The bench stated that there can be no exemption and no excuses shall work. All the States must mandatorily implement the same.
The direction was passed in the Suo Moto Case- “in re problems and miseries of migrant workers.”
Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave raised the issue of the non-availability of the ration card benefits to the migrant workers who weren’t registered.
In response to the questions asked by the bench, Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta submits before the court that Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana has been extended to November and the statistics of the migrants has also been recorded.
ASG Aishwarya Bhati also supported SG’s submission by stating that 8 lakh metric tonnes of food grains have been provided by the Centre, the manner of distribution is left to State.
The Court's primary concern is regarding whether the migrant workers who do not have any form of identity are eligible for such schemes. The Court questions the Union about the national database which was sanctioned in October 2020.
“We are of the view that the registration of unorganized workers should be completed as early as possible and there should be a common national database for all organized workers situated in different states in the entire country,” the Court has observed.
The Court had noted that the unorganized worker's social security act had been repealed by the social security code enacted last year.
In the wake of the above, the court directed that the Centre may file a detailed report concerning the same within two weeks without further ado.
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