India Supreme Court Orders Bonded Labour Aid Paid Within Seven Days

India's Supreme Court ruled on Monday, November 2, 2026, that rescued bonded labourers must ordinarily receive their immediate financial assistance within seven days of the release certificate being issued, and that the money cannot be held back just because a police investigation or criminal case is still running.

Justices Vikram Nath and Aparesh Kumar Singh issued nationwide directions on two petitions about the gap between rescue and rehabilitation. Live Law reported the judgment the same day, and The Hindu carried the ruling in its November 3 coverage. The bench said the state's duty to a freed labourer does not end at the moment of release.

The deadlines the court set

Complaints about bonded labour must ordinarily be verified within 24 hours, followed by a fast rescue where the complaint holds up. Release certificates must ordinarily be issued within 24 hours of a person being found to be a bonded labourer. Assistance follows within seven days of the certificate, subject to verification, and an individual rehabilitation plan must be started within 90 days of rescue. A pending criminal case is not a reason to stop the payment, and a dispute between two states over who pays cannot delay it either.

The court ordered uniform use across the country of the revised standard operating procedure dated May 14, 2026. States and union territories have six months to put the directions in place. The central government must issue added guidelines, in consultation with the National Human Rights Commission, within three months, and must decide in the same period whether to revise the rehabilitation scheme and raise the help it pays.

The case behind the ruling

One petition came from Surendra Manjhi, rescued with other labourers from a brick kiln in Shahjahanpur district, Uttar Pradesh, on February 28, 2019. He received his immediate assistance only in 2022, close to three years later. Of 42 labourers issued release certificates in that group, 25 had received 20,000 rupees each and 17 were still waiting, the court was told. The bench ordered Uttar Pradesh and Bihar to verify the position of those 17 workers together within one month and to pay anything owed within three months where possible, and no later than six months.

Why it matters

Bonded labour was abolished by law in 1976, under the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, and the constitution bars forced labour under Article 23. The failure the court addressed is not the law. It is the wait after rescue, when a freed worker with no money and no papers can slide back into the same debt the law was written to break. The court kept the petitions open, asked the central government for a compliance report within four months, and will review progress after seven months.