Coronavirus Lockdown 3.0: Can't stop or monitor movement of migrant workers on roads, says Supreme Court

"How can we stop them from walking on roads and railway tracks," the Supreme Court on Friday asked a lawyer raising the issue of deaths of migrant labourers.

A bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao, Sanjay Kishan Kaul and B R Gavai expressed their exasperation as advocate Alok Alakh Srivastava raised the issue of migrants' death after being crushed by trains and buses in several incidents across the country.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said everybody will get a chance to travel, subject to agreement among states. Using any force against them would be counter productive, he said.

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Hundreds of 'Shramik Special Trains' were being run on requests by states. But as the number of migrants were huge, they failed to get tickets. Hundreds of them were forced to walk on foot to their natives places, resulting into accidents.

"There are people walking and not stopping. How can we help?" the bench asked Srivastava, who brought forth incidents related to death of migrant workers.

The bench, however, said every advocate reads incidents in the newspaper and becomes knowledgeable about every subject.

"Your knowledge is totally based on newspaper clippings and then under Article 32, you want this court to decide. Let the state decide. Why should this court decide or hear?," the bench said.

The petitioner said 16 migrants were killed on the highway in Una MP and in Saharanpur, UP.

The bench, however, refused to pass any order saying it was impossible for this court to monitor who was walking on the roads.

To a query from the court whether there is any way to stop the migrants from walking on the road, Mehta said States are providing interstate transport. But if people get angry and start on foot instead of waiting for the transport to be provided, nothing can be done. We can only request that people not to walk, he said.

As many as 16 migrants were killed after being run over by a goods train in Maharashtra's Aurangabad district on May 8. Six others were killed in Uttar Pradesh after coming under wheels of a bus on Thursday.