The top court further directed all the state governments and union territories to constitute an expert committee and bring out statutory rules within six months.
The Supreme Court on Monday directed the Centre to frame a model scheme before September 30 to address the issues of education, health, social security
and pension for construction workers, saying they build not just infrastructure, but also the nation.
The top court said that more than Rs 37,400 crore have been collected for the benefit of construction workers, but ostensibly only about Rs. 9,500 crores have
been utilized for their benefit.
It questioned as to why millions of construction workers across the country are being denied the benefit of remaining Rs 28,000 crore.
The top court further directed all the state governments and union territories to constitute an expert committee and bring out statutory rules within six months.
A bench of Justices M B Lokur and Deepak Gupta said the directions given by the court from time-to-time to implement the two laws — The Building and Other
Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996 (BOCW Act) and the Building and Other Construction Workers’ Welfare
Cess Act, 1996, (Cess Act) — have been flouted with impunity.
The top court said that the every state government and Union Territory shall constitute an expert committee and frame statutory rules under provisions of the
BOCW Act, if such statutory Rules have not already been framed.
“Setting up an expert committee and framing statutory rules should be in a time-bound manner, with the exercise being completed preferably within six months
and in any event by September 30, 2018,” it said.
