The Supreme Court has directed Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan to compensate construction labourers impacted by the suspension of work due to the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) measures in Delhi-NCR, even in the absence of a specific court order.

A bench comprising Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan ruled that compensation should be provided using funds collected through the labour cess.

“As far as 2024 and 2025 are concerned, we have issued directions to the states to pay compensation. Hereafter, whenever construction activities are halted due to GRAP implementation, affected workers must be compensated as per the Supreme Court’s November 24, 2021, directive,” news agency PTI quoted the top court as saying.

During the hearing on Friday, the court was informed that Haryana had compensated 2,68,759 and 2,24,881 workers during the first and second phases of GRAP-4, respectively. Additionally, the process of disbursing compensation to approximately 95,000 workers for the January 2025 GRAP-4 period is ongoing.

The Delhi government’s counsel informed the court that 93,272 workers had received compensation, while the verification process for the remaining registered workers was underway. Rajasthan reported paying compensation to 3,197 workers, whereas Uttar Pradesh disbursed funds to 4,88,246, 4,84,157, and 691 workers across different GRAP phases.

Previously, the court had criticised the Delhi government for failing to fully provide subsistence allowances to construction workers affected by pollution-related work stoppages. It directed the Delhi government to immediately convene a meeting with workers’ unions to ensure proper registration.

Similar orders were issued for Rajasthan, which has two NCR districts (Bharatpur and Alwar), along with 14 districts in Haryana and eight in Uttar Pradesh, instructing them to hold meetings with workers’ unions and ensure subsistence allowances are paid.

On December 2, the Supreme Court summoned the chief secretaries of NCR states via video conferencing to confirm whether compensation had been provided to workers affected by the restrictions.