Supreme Law News

Can RWA stop your maid from coming to your home?

The question doing around after considerable relaxation in lockdown is that can your maid and car cleaners will be allowed to perform their duties?

In its latest order, the centre has allowed them to join their duties but still they are not permitted to visit your home or society by your Residents Welfare Association, (RWAs).

Is there any law which gives this power to RWAs to decide this? Has the Centre or state governments given such powers to RWAs? Can domestic workers freely come to your home now? Let’s examine this.

Yes, domestic workers can freely come to your house, barring containment zones where any public movement except for emergencies is strictly prohibited. Services of self-employed people providing services such as house help, car cleaning, sanitation, electrical work, plumbing, carpentry etc. are permitted.

Maids and Cleaners allowed in Red Zones
The services of domestic help are even allowed in big cities, like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Ahmedabad. Cities like Hyderabad, Patna and the like, which are all in Red Zones, too can enjoy the services of domestic help and car cleaners. There is no such restriction as far as the law is concerned.

In Lockdown -2, some FIRs were lodged against people who were allowing maids and cleaners to come to their house but now there is no restriction on availing these services.

Though there is no specific mention of it in the latest guidelines issued by the centre but at the same it is also not specifically prohibited

The national guidelines issued by The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) have made it clear that there would be free movement of people in all zones, barring containment zones, between 7 am and 7 pm. However, public transport for this movement would not ply in the Red and Orange Zones.

However, states can still issue orders to restrict public movement, and not allow service providers to come. They have the powers to ignore the Centre’s suggested relaxations under the Disaster Management Act.

RWAs can’t stop maids coming to your house

But RWAs have no power to restrict the services of domestic help. So, if your RWA or its officials are not allowing you to avail this service it is violation of law and action can be initiated against them. The Centre’s guidelines do not even have the word “RWAs” anywhere in the entire document.

“It is not for RWAs to decide the contours of the lockdown. That power is only vested with the Centre and the states. The MHA has not vested any power in RWAs to decide on the matter. The Centre has no issues with services of domestic workers or any other service provider and neither do the states have any problems.

Exception to the law.

No, not with any legal sanctity. But if they want to, they may do so — just as they take a call on various activities to be allowed or not allowed in a housing society.

Society bylaws do provide the power to RWAs and cooperative housing societies to decide how they must organise and regulate their residential clusters.In practical terms, the issue of domestic help would have to be sorted out between residents and office bearers of the society keeping in mind the safety and comfort of all.

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Dr. Ajay Kummar Pandey

( LLM, MBA, (UK), PhD, AIMA, AFAI, PHD Chamber, ICTC, PCI, FCC, DFC, PPL, MNP, BNI, ICJ (UK), WP, (UK), MLE, Harvard Square, London, CT, Blair Singer Institute, (USA), Dip. in International Crime, Leiden University, the Netherlands )

Advocate & Consultant Supreme Court of India, High Courts & Tribunals.