New Delhi, Sept. 22 -- In a judgment that opened with a rare reflection on the dignity of manual labour, the Delhi High Court observed that a labourer's punishing workday "requires a sound peaceful sleep in the night to rejuvenate the body," lamenting that this basic need has become "a regular and unending plight of the labourers in the country," a class that remains "least paid, least cared and least bothered."

Justice Vimal Kumar Yadav, delivering the verdict in Veer Pal v. State on September 18, 2026, went on to contrast this with the Western world, where, he noted, physical labour is "adequately compensated and valued," calling the domestic state of affairs "very pathetic."

The remarks framed a case arising from the night of March 1...