File contempt suit against states - SC

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday took a serious view of state governments collecting hundreds of crores of rupees from builders but not taking a single step to spend the money on welfare of construction workers in flagrant violation of a 15-year-old law.
A Bench comprising Chief Justice S H Kapadia and Justices K S Radhakrishnan and Swatanter Kumar faulted the Centre and asked additional solicitor general Vivek Tankha as to why wrong facts were being presented to save states who have failed to implement the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996,


despite a specific direction from the court more than a year ago. Referring to the January 18, 2009 order directing the states to implement the 1996 law, the Bench granted liberty to petitioner’s counsel Colin Gonsalves to initiate contempt proceedings against big states like Maharashtra for their failure to comply with the court order.
Under the Act, states have to collect 1% of total construction cost of every project for being spent on the welfare of the workers through a board. Most states were collecting the levy from builders, but were yet to establish a board, Gonsalves pointed out.
What appeared to upset the Bench most was that the first step towards implementation of the central law, that is setting up of welfare boards by states, had not been undertaken and the Central Advisory Committee (CAC) had done nothing about it.
Gonsalves, who appeared for an NGO PIL petitioner, submitted a chart showing the status of implementation of the law. Tankha said the SC's order giving liberty to the petitioner to initiate contempt proceedings would actually help the Centre in convincing the states to quickly fall in line and implement the 1996 law.