The Calcutta High Court has held the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) and other state authorities responsible for “serious lapses and negligence” that led to the deaths of four labourers during a sewer-desilting operation in South Kolkata in February 2021.

Expressing strong concern, a division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Sujoy Paul and Justice Chaitali Chatterjee Das observed, “It is disheartening to see cases of death and severe injury due to manual scavenging still plying in courts today… its persistence is a blot on the nation's conscience.”

The court was hearing a PIL filed by the Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR), which sought an independent probe and adequate compensation for the victims’ families.

According to a report by Live Law, the case relates to the deaths of four labourers engaged in manual sewer cleaning in the Khudghat area as part of the Kolkata Environmental Improvement Investment Programme (KEIIP), a KMC-run project. The workers were allegedly sent into an underground sewer chamber without any safety measures, where they inhaled toxic fumes and drowned in sludge.

Despite media coverage and information sought through RTI applications, no arrests were made in the aftermath of the incident, prompting APDR to approach the High Court.

The bench, relying on the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling in Dr. Balaram Singh v. Union of India, emphasized that compensation for sewer-related deaths must be Rs 30 lakh—significantly higher than the Rs 10 lakh paid by KMC, Live Law added.