HC seeks status report on PIL to regulate placement agencies

The Delhi High Court today directed the city government and the police to file a status report within 10 days on a plea to regulate placement agencies in the city.
A bench of Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justice Manmohan also issued notices to the Centre, Delhi government and Delhi Police seeking their responses by November 6.
The bench was hearing a PIL filed by Bachpan Bachao Andolan, an NGO, seeking compulsory registration of placement agencies within one month and compliance of the court's earlier directions on the issue.
Appearing for the petitioner, senior advocate H S Phoolka cited the recent case in Vasant Kunj area, where a girl was allegedly tortured by her employer, saying "such incidents show domestic workers are being incessantly tortured and these girls are mostly being placed there by placement agencies which are completely unregulated."

In the plea, the NGO referred to the high court's earlier directions saying "the court had issued detailed directions and directed compulsory registration for all placement agencies in Delhi within a finite time. This was not done and the illegal trade of trafficking kept increasing exponentially."
As per the plea, on the petitioner's application on August 4, 2011 alleging government's inaction to comply with the court's directions, Delhi government put forth a bill called Delhi Placement Agencies (Regulation) Bill.
The plea also said the court had held in March last year that the bill should be enacted within 2-3 months but nothing has been done till date.

"In two sessions and nearly 25 sittings, the bill has not even been tabled. The government is completely non-serious about the bill..." the petitioner NGO said.