New Delhi: According to a formal statement released on Tuesday, Delhi’s lieutenant governor, V K Saxena, has given his approval for the dismissal of 15 cases against 64 migrant workers who were accused of disobeying lockdown orders during the pandemic. These cases were registered by the Delhi government’s Directorate of Prosecution, it said.
Saxena reportedly ordered the Delhi Police to submit a closure report in 10 other cases involving more than 100 migrant workers.
Saxena considered that this decision would spare the migrants from “unnecessary harassment,” an official said. Saxena took the humanitarian and rational perspective that these breaches were basically small in character and committed by poor migrant workers in a position of acute hardship.
According to the Supreme Court’s ruling dated June 9, the LG adopted this stance in accordance with it, taking into mind the migrants’ helpless state during the pandemic in the national capital, many of whom had lost their jobs and could not afford their rent and existential necessities, the official added.
43 cases under Section 51 of the Disaster Management Act of 2005 and other offences were brought against the migrant workers for allegedly breaking the lockdown’s rules by using the roadways.
Of these, 18 have already been disposed of and decided upon by the courts. In 15 cases where chargesheets have already been filed in the courts, the LG has ordered the withdrawal of prosecution, and in the remaining 10 cases where chargesheets are yet to be filed or accused are untraced, the LG has asked the Delhi Police to file a closure report.
