Karnataka’s Move Against Migrants Unconstitutional: Sanjay Hegde

Senior advocate Sanjay Hegde has strongly criticised the decision of the BS Yeddiyurappa government in Karnataka to cancel all trains for migrant workers, after the chief minister met with a builders’ lobby.

The decision of the BJP government in Karnataka on Tuesday, 5 May, as reported first by The Quint, has led to an uproar, as it appears to be justifying forced labour.

“The Karnataka government’s move is ill-advised, retrograde and unconstitutional,” Hegde said. But why is it unconstitutional?

“The Constitution has banned forced labour or ‘begaar’. Today you are seeking to compel these workers to stay on in an alien land, away from their families and to work simply because they cannot go home. That is not how a democracy is run, that is not how a Constitution is run.”

Sanjay Hegde, senior advocate at the Supreme Court

Hegde criticised how the move took away the choices of these migrant workers, who have been stuck in places where they have no homes or even basic resources because of the way the nationwide lockdown was imposed without any notice.

“Migrant workers are Indians as much as anyone else. They have the right to make choices. If their states of origin send railway tickets for them to come home, then it is certainly no business of the state of Karnataka to stop those trains from running.”

Sanjay Hegde, senior advocate at the Supreme Court

The well-known lawyer, who was at one point the standing counsel for Karnataka at the Supreme Court, reiterated that the migrants could not be forced to work, and the government should not be acting in concert with employers to stop this from happening. He suggested that if the builders felt a need to get the workers to say, they could always offer them incentives to do so, rather than the government dictating this to be the case.

“It is always open to employers to offer better payments which could possibly tell migrants it is not better to go home , it may be better working for enhanced pay. You can always provide inducements, but you cannot compel.”

Sanjay Hegde, senior advocate at the Supreme Court