The present writ petition has been filed as a
Public Interest Litigation for issuance of directions to the respondents i.e. Union
of India, the Government of Punjab and the Punjab Building and other
Construction
Welfare Board to implement the scheme in its letter and spirit,
which, according to the petitioner, has not been done.We have gone through the written statements filed by Union of India, State of Punjab and the Punjab Building and other
Construction Welfare Board who are respondents herein. Prima facie, it appears to
us that till date very little work has been done under the aforesaid scheme
and negligible benefits have been given to the beneficiaries for whom
the aforesaid scheme had been launched in the year 2007.
We also find that in this petition, the State of Haryana, U.T.Chandigarh and the Haryana Building and other Construction Welfare Board is not party who are to implement the aforesaid scheme in
their respective States. Accordingly, in the interest of justice, we order the impleadment of the State of Haryana through its Chief Secretary as respondent No.6., the Haryana Building and other Construction
Welfare Board through its member Secretary as respondent No.7 as well as the
U.T.Chandigarh through its Advisor to the Administrator as
respondent No.8.
CWP No.4847 of 2014 (O&M)
Center for Social Change and Equity
Versus
Union of India and others
Present: Ms. Veena Kumari,
Advocate for the petitioner.
Mr. Naresh Kumar
Joshi, Advocate for respondent No.1.
Mr. Gaurav Garg
Dhuriwala, D.A.G. Punjab.
Mr. D.P. Sharma,
Advocate for respondent No.5.
The issue raised
in this petition is with regard to the
implementation of
the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana Scheme which was
launched in the
year 2007. Under the said Scheme, Smart Cards were to be
issued after
registration of the beneficiaries for availing the benefit of health
insurance.
Initially under the said scheme, BPL families were covered but
later on various
other categories of unorganized workers like building and
other construction
workers, Rag pickers, Rickshaw Pullers, Mine workers,
Sanitation
Workers, Auto Rickshaw drivers/Taxi drivers etc. were also
included.
Regarding building and another construction workers, the primary
responsibility of
registration of workers was with the State building and
other
constructions workers welfare board which have been constituted
under Building and
other Construction, Workers (Regulation of
Employment and
conditions of service) Act, 1996 (for short “the 1996
Act”). Regarding
the other categories of beneficiaries, the scheme was to be
implemented by the
Labour Department and the Department of Local
Bodies of the
respective States.
The present writ
petition has been filed as a Public Interest
Litigation for
issuance of directions to the respondents i.e. Union of India,
the Government of
Punjab and the Punjab Building and other Construction
Welfare Board to
implement the scheme in its letter and spirit, which
according to the
petitioner, has not been done.
We have gone
through the written statements filed by Union of
India, State of
Punjab and the Punjab Building and other Construction
Welfare Board who
are respondents herein. Prima facie, it appears to us that
till date very little work has been
done under the aforesaid scheme and
CWP No.4847 of 2014 (O&M) -2-
negligible
benefits have been given to the beneficiaries for whom the
aforesaid scheme
had been launched in the year 2007.
We also find that
in this petition, the State of Haryana, U.T.
Chandigarh and the
Haryana Building and other Construction Welfare
Board is not party
who are to implement the aforesaid scheme in their
respective States.
Accordingly, in
the interest of justice, we order the
impleadment of the
State of Haryana through its Chief Secretary as
respondent No.6.,
the Haryana Building and other Construction Welfare
Board through its
member Secretary as respondent No.7 as well as the U.T.
Chandigarh through
its Advisor to the Administrator as respondent No.8. In
our opinion, the
Building and other Construction Welfare Boards are
necessary parties
for yet another reason as they are also collecting labour
cess which is
required to be utilized for the welfare of the unorganized
labour.
Let notices be
issued to the newly impleaded respondents for
9.4.2015.
In the meanwhile,
we direct the Punjab Building and other
Construction
Welfare Board as well as the similar boards in the State of
Haryana and Union
Territory to supply the following information on
affidavit:
(i) How much
labour cess has been collected till date by the Boards
under the 1996 Act
and how much cess amount has been spent till date?
(ii) The detail of
spending of cess amount on various schemes be given
separately?
(iii) What amount
remains un-spent and where it has been deposited? and
(iv) How much
amount has been spent specifically by these Boards while
implementing the
Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana Scheme?
Both the
respective States as well as the Union Territory,
Chandigarh are
further directed to supply following information on
affidavit:
(i) Till date how
much amount has been spent by the State or its
various
departments while implementing the aforesaid scheme?
(ii) The detail of
benefit to the beneficiaries be given under the
Scheme. The said detail be given
category wise.
CWP No.4847 of 2014 (O&M) -3-
We further direct
the Union of India to file an affidavit with
respect to the
steps they have taken for implementation of the scheme. In
both the
respective States as well as Union Territory Chandigarh, whether
Union of India has
taken any step where it found that the scheme was not
being properly
implemented.
In this case, a
joint written statement has been filed by State of
Punjab and Punjab
Health Systems Corporation. We deem it necessary that
the Punjab Health
Systems Corporation, should file a separate written
statement by the
adjourned date of hearing on the following aspects:
(i) How many
claims with regard to Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana
Scheme have been
settled by the insurance company to whom this job has
been assigned?
(ii) How much
benefits have been released by the insurance company and
what is the claim
amount settled?
Adjourned to
9.4.2015.
( SATISH KUMAR MITTAL)
JUDGE
27.02.2015 ( DEEPAK SIBAL )
JUDGE
Posted by Amit Chopra
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