ABSTRACT
Three weeks after 24 March 2020, a survey of 11,159 migrant workers by the Stranded Workers Action Network, reported on 20 April by The Hindu, opened a troubling window to the intense distress of migrant workers stranded by the lockdown. A week into the lockdown, lawyers Prashant Bhushan and Cheryl D'Souza filed a public interest petition in the Supreme Court, seeking the upholding of the right to life with dignity under Article 21 of the Constitution for the migrants who were badly hit by the sudden and severe lockdown. In the course of the hearing on the 7 April, the Chief Justice asked why, since the workers were being provided meals, they would need money. The bench said it could not rely on studies by private bodies when the government portrayed a completely different picture. With this, they chose to finally close the case, without giving any relief to the migrants during the lockdown.
