- By Nidhi Giri
- Tue, 09 Jul 2024 12:48 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
The Supreme Court is expected to hear on July 12 a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking direction to appoint a five member expert committee under the supervision of retired Supreme Court judge to enquire into the Hathras stampede that claimed over 121 lives on July 2. Advocate Vishal Tiwari, who mentioned the matter before Chief Justice of India Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud, was informed that the CJI had already directed for listing the case.
“I have given my listing orders already. It will be listed,” told the CJI to the lawyer Vishal Tiwari who mentioned the matter for early hearing.
The plea sought direction to the committee to suggest and frame guidelines and safety measures to avoid such incidents in large number of public gatherings.
"We had a filed a petition in the Supreme Court on the Hathras Stampede incident where 121 people died. Supreme Court has passed an order that it is ready to list the matter and soon a hearing will be held. We demand that an expert panel be constituted under the leadership of a retired Supreme Court Judge to investigate the matter and also frame guidelines. The government should also call a status report in the incident...," said advocate Vishal Tiwari, as quoted by news agency ANI.
The petition further sought direction to the State of Uttar Pradesh to submit status report before the apex court in Hathras stampede incident and initiate legal action against the persons, authorities and officials for their negligent conduct.
It asked the top court to direct all the State governments to issue directions and guidelines to prevent stampede or other incidents for the safety of the public in organising any religious events or other events where large number of public gathers.
As many as 121 people were killed in UP’s Hathras last week during a religious event dedicated to preacher Bhole Baba. The incident reportedly occurred as supporters of Bhole Baba hurried to collect mud from the path he had traversed. After being silent for days, Bhole Baba expressed his anguish over the deaths at his event, adding that the people who created chaos will not be spared.
In his plea, advocate cited several such stampede-like events have occurred in the past including the Kumbh Mela stampede in 1954 where around 800 persons were reported dead, the Mecca Masjid stampede of 2007 where 16 were reported dead, the Mata Vaishno Devi shrine deaths in 2022, the deaths during Dussehra celebrations at the Gandhi Maidan in Patna in 2014 and the death of around 104 Sabarimala devotees at Pulmedu in Idukki.
“Such incident prima facie depicts the serious condition of responsibility lapse, negligence and unfaithful duty of care towards to the public by the government authorities. From past decade various incidents have taken place in our country wherein due to the mismanagement, lapse in duty, negligent maintenance activities, there has been cases of huge public casualties which could have been avoided yet due to such arbitrary and undone actions have led to such work,” plea stated.