State cannot smother the rights of the poor, the Karnataka High Court said while quashing a notification issued by the Karnataka government that reduced the educational assistance payable to registered construction workers and their children..In an order passed on January 10, single-judge Justice M Nagaprasanna said the rights guaranteed by the Constitution were not meant for the elite citizens alone and that the poor too were entitled to all rights and benefits extended by the State.The Court accordingly, quashed and set aside a notification issued by the Karnataka Building and Other Construction Welfare Board (KBCWB) on October 30, 2023 that reduced “education assistance” amount payable to children of construction workers pursuing undergraduate courses from ₹30,000 to ₹10,000 and for those pursuing post graduate courses from ₹35,000 to ₹ 11,000.Justice Nagaprasanna also directed the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) to conduct a “complete audit” of KBCWB’s fund following allegations that the board was diverting welfare money to fund its administrative expenditure..“It has been varied to the detriment of those children. Therefore, the State should not have varied the amount to the extent that it has taken back the benefit to a vintage of 10 years by putting the clock back to a benefit that prevailed in the year 2011. The state should never stifle or smother the rights of the poor. There is no reason whatsoever found in any of the justification projected by the State to do so,” the High Court said..The Court was hearing a petition filed two workers registered with the Karnataka building and other construction welfare board (KBCWB), their daughters, and the Karnataka state building and other workers federation trade union, challenging the State’s decision to reduce the said financial assistance amount.The petitioners told the Court that KBCWB had been over-spending on administrative expenditure but had cut its expenditure on welfare schemes citing lack of funds. The petitioners further alleged that KBCWB had received over ₹6,700 crore cess that was to be used as welfare fund but it had instead invested such money in fixed deposits and was earning interest..The Court also noted that the 2023 notification had failed to provide any justifiable reason for reducing the assistance amount.“Educational assistance to the poor children should only increase and not decrease to such abysmal levels,” the High Court said..It also dismissed KBCWB’s submission that it was facing a fund crunch.“The projection by the respondent Board is that it has financial constraints. As observed hereinabove, the financial constraints projected is preposterous, to say the least, as crores of rupees are spent elsewhere. There is no accounting of the interest earned on deposits close to ₹7000 crores,” the High Court said.The Court further said that the Supreme Court had made it clear in several of its judgements that benefits extended to construction workers by the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act of 1996 must be strictly implemented..“In the light of what is held by the Apex Court in the judgments noticed hereinbefore, the action of the State, in treating the funds that belonged to the construction workers and their children as the property of the Board, for bartering away for wasteful expenditure must be stopped, and stopped forthwith, as it cannot be forgotten that reference in the preamble to the Constitution of India to the words “we the people” does not mean the miniscule elite, or a larger upper middle class only, but it would be largely inclusive of the people who are below poverty line like the construction workers. They also have a constitutional right to live with basic human dignity and also entitled to all the rights that flow from the statutes. The rights of construction workers cannot be railroaded in the broad day light by the State, or the Authorities like the Board,” the High Court said..Advocates Aditya Chatterjee and Akshita Goyal appeared for the petitioners Amrutha, Manjegowda, Ankitha, Harish and the trade union.Advocate Prathima Honnapura appeared for the Karnataka government.Senior Counsel MRC Ravi and advocate Prashanth BR appeared for the respondent KBCWB..[Read Order]
