Karnataka HC favours police verification of migrant workers after recent spate of crimes

The Karnataka High Court has favoured police verification of migrant workers hired as domestic help and offered shelter by their employers.

The suggestion from a division bench of Justice HP Sandesh and Justice Venkatesh Naik T to Chief Secretary Shalini Rajneesh came after the court took note of the recent incidents of crime including robbery and murders involving migrant workers.

The court noted that in many cases, house owners or employers engaged workers without any background verification, identity confirmation, or registration with the authorities. Some of them frequently commit crimes and flee, the bench noted in its judgement delivered last week.


The bench suggested to the Chief Secretary to come up with guidelines as the situation called for urgent need for preventive safeguards through strict enforcement of existing labour and criminal regulatory mechanisms. “A structured and mandatory police verification mechanism should be introduced before engaging workers who reside within private premises, like tenant verification systems, with simplified online registration portals accessible to the public,” the bench said.

The Court, however, warned against stigmatizing migrant workers as a class since “criminal liability is individual in nature and the constitutional guarantees under Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India protect the dignity and equality of all persons. Thus, balanced judicial directions aimed at regulation, awareness, and accountability without discrimination would serve the larger interest of public safety and social justice.”

The judgment came in a case involving a migrant worker who joined a family as a domestic maid but fled after murdering three members of the family by roping in her husband and three others.