New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday, May 13, came down heavily on the Kerala government for its failure to provide compensation and medical aid to the victims exposed to the pesticide, endosulfan, in the state, the Hindu reported.
The top court called the Kerala government’s inaction a breach of its 2017 order wherein it directed the state to pay Rs 5 lakh in compensation to all the identified victims of exposure to the pesticide.
While the top court had given the state government a time-frame of three months to disburse the compensation, as of today, five years since the judgement, only eight victims have received the funds.
What is endosulfan?
Endosulfan is a pesticide which was widely used in the Kerala as well as other states. According to Down to Earth magazine, the agrochemical has been linked to a slew of grave medical conditions, such as neurotoxicity, physical deformities, poisoning and more.
In 2011, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court, led by then Chief Justice of India S.H. Kapadia had ordered a nation-wide band on the manufacture, sale and use of endosulfan, while hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI).
Thereafter, while hearing another petition filed by the DYFI in 2017, the top court had ordered the state government to pay Rs 5 lakh compensation to the victims exposed to endosulfan in the state and also to set up medical facilities to combat the long-term health effects emerging from endosulfan exposure.
At the time, over 5,000 victims had been identified.
Also read: After Long March for Justice, Victims of Endosulfan Poisoning Are Hopeful
The present case
Currently, according to the Hindu report, 3,704 victims of endosulfan exposure have been identified, of which 102 are bedridden, 326 mentally challenged, 201 are physically disabled and 119 have cancer. However, the state government has reportedly taken no action in the matter.
A bench of Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and Surya Kant were hearing a contempt petition by eight of these victims who sought for the state government to implement the court’s 2017 order.
Calling the state government’s inaction “appalling”, the bench also said that it was a “breach of the orders of the court”.
It should be noted here that the eight victims who received compensation were the same ones who filed the contempt petition and only received the funds in April this year.
“All your activity started after we issued notice on the contempt petition. This should not be the approach of a welfare state,” the Hindustan Times quoted the bench as saying.
The bench also questioned the state government’s rationale for awarding compensation only to these victims, stating that most of the others come from marginalised sections of society and are in the most dire need of compensation.
Moreover, the court pulled up the Kerala government for failing to provide any form of palliative care to the victims either.
The court ordered for the immediate disbursal of the compensation amount to the remaining victims and also directed the state government to pay an additional Rs 50,000 to the eight petitioners for the delay in receiving their compensation.
The bench also directed chief secretary V.P. Joy to hold monthly meetings to ensure the state’s compliance with the 2017 judgement and directed him to submit a report by the next date of hearing, July 18.