CHENNAI: The Madras High Court shall be constrained to direct the personal appearance of any of the high dignitaries, be it from the Prime Minister’s Office Secretariat, Union Home Department or the Ministry of Law and Justice, if no amendment is made to the existing Act to prevent manual scavenging before August 22, the Madras HC has warned.The First Bench comprising Chief Justice MY Eqbal and Justice TS Sivagnanam gave the ultimatum, when the public interest writ petition from social activist and Padam editor, A Narayanan, came up for hearing on Thursday.The Bench also deprecated the absence of the Secretary, Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation. The Secretary had very conveniently escaped her appearance in court by filing her counter-affidavit through the Joint Secretary, the Bench noted. Originally, the Bench had passed various orders on the issue of eliminating manual scavenging on various occasions over the years. Contending that the final order passed on November 20, 2008, had not been complied with, Narayanan filed the present contempt application. On June 17 last, the bench directed the Secretary of the Union Ministry for Housing, to appear before it and file an affidavit relating to the amendments proposed to the Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prevention) Act, 1993.However, when the matter was taken up on Thursday, only the Joint Secretary appeared before the Bench and filed an affidavit stating that after the Chairperson of the National Advisory Council sent a letter to the Prime Minsiter recommending appropriate amendments to the law to ensure prevention of manual scavenging, the Prime Minister was himself monitoring the situation.
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