The Supreme Court has directed the Centre to release extra foodgrains to states that have issued ration cards to migrant and unorganised sector workers registered on the national eShram portal but do not physically possess the document.

A bench of Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia and Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah also directed the states to complete the ration card allotment process for the migrant workers registered on the eShram portal within four weeks and file compliance reports, failing which the court would initiate proceedings against the officials concerned.

The bench passed the directions on a joint PIL named “Re-problems and Miseries of Migrant Labourers” and filed by social activists Anjali Bhardwaj, Harsh Mander and Jagdeep Chhokar.

The top court also took note of the slow pace at which states are carrying out the exercise of verifying and issuing ration cards.

Advocates Prashant Bhushan and Cherryl Dsouza, appearing for the petitioners, said that several states had noted in their affidavits that their quota under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) had been exhausted and that they would only be able to issue ration cards to migrant/unorganised sector workers if the Centre provided additional foodgrains.

In its earlier orders of March 2023 and 2024, the court had directed all states and Union Territories to issue ration cards under the NFSA to the 8 crore people registered on the eShram portal, but do not possess them.

During Tuesday’s hearing, the court reiterated that the ration cards must be issued irrespective of the quotas defined in Section 3 of the NFSA.

In its earlier orders, the court had also taken cognisance of the fact that the coverage of persons getting rations under the NFSA is to be determined based on the latest census, and as the census of 2021 has not been undertaken, the coverage continues to be based on the 2011 exercise.

The petitioners had filed the PIL in the wake of the pandemic which rendered lakhs of migrant labourers without food, jobs and social security measures.