Order of the Delhi High Court in the matter of M/S Metro Waste Handling Vs Delhi Jal Board dated 29/05/2018.

The issue relates to the conditions in the tender issued by the Delhi Jal Board inviting bids for mechanized cleaning of sewers in the city of Delhi. One of the eligibility criteria for bidders which the petitioner complains about is that preference would be given to "bidders who belong to Scheduled Caste and Schedule Tribe community who engaged in the manual scavenging and their dependent as per article 46 of the Constitution as mentioned in THE PROHIBITIONOF EMPLOYMENTAS MANUAL SCAVENGERS AND THEIR REHABILFTATIONACT, 2013".

High Court of Delhi while dismissing the petition said that " the object of such preference is plainly to enable the meaningful participation of the most marginalized section, i.e. workers involved in manual scavenging, and scheduled caste/scheduled tribe communities". The state, i.e., DJB, in our opinion, had a compelling interest in promoting the welfare of these class of citizens, while conceiving and implementing this system of preferences, in the impugned NIT.