The Supreme Court on Monday issued contempt notices to chief secretaries of 15 states, including Delhi, for their failure to prevent manual scavenging deaths despite a clear direction by the top court in a 2023 ruling to end such an inhuman practice.
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The court passed the order on being told that after the October 20, 2023, order directing all states, Union territories and civic agencies to ensure no manual scavenging takes place, 100 deaths took place between 2024 and 2025, with unverified reports claiming that more than 100 sewer deaths have already taken place this year.
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Referring to data forming part of the Centre’s response given to a question raised in Parliament in March this year, a bench of justices Aravind Kumar and Vipul M Pancholi noted that 165 deaths were reported from 15 states, with 65 in 2023, 54 in 2024, and 46 in 2025. The bench said, “Despite this court’s directions issued on October 20, 2023, deaths due to persons entering sewer/septic tanks is still occurring and that too in large numbers.”
Posting the matter after four weeks, the order said, “We call upon the chief secretaries of the 15 states to show cause as to why contempt proceedings not be initiated for wilful disobedience of this court’s order.”
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Refusing to tolerate continuation of human scavenging, the bench categorically asserted, “Such deaths cannot go on when we have made it clear that no manual scavenging is to take place. We will now fix responsibility as somewhere the buck has to stop.”
Senior advocate K Parameshwar, assisting the court as amicus curiae, pointed out that the 2023 verdict required all governments and civic bodies to take such steps by which humans are not required to enter sewer or septic tanks.
Citing the deaths recorded in the response to a Parliament question, he urged the court to ensure that the letter of the law laid down by the court is strictly enforced.
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The bench said, “The directions issued by this court seem to have not percolated down and remedial steps have not taken place.” The five states reporting maximum deaths in 2024-25 include Uttar Pradesh (17), Maharashtra (17), Rajasthan (13), Delhi (12) and Tamil Nadu (12).
Besides these states, the chief secretaries asked to respond by the court belong to Punjab, Haryana, West Bengal, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat, and Goa. Going by the 2023 deaths, even Bihar and Jharkhand were asked to respond as the figures did not specify whether the deaths occurred after the judgment.
