New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday said the Hathras stampede that left 121 dead was of course a disturbing incident but the petitioner should move the Allahabad High Court, while declining to entertain a PIL seeking a probe into the tragic incident.
A three-judge bench led by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said such incidents are disturbing but the petitioner should have approached the Allahabad High Court, which is equipped to deal with such cases.
"Of course, these are disturbing incidents. This (the PIL filed by the petitioner) is usually done here to make a big deal of such incidents”, said the bench, adding that the high court is equipped to deal with this case. The bench refused to entertain the plea filed by the advocate Vishal Tiwari.
Tiwari submitted before the bench that the issue regarding the non-availability of proper medical facilities to deal with such incidents is a pan-India concern, and the petition can be dealt with by the apex court also. However, the bench refused to accept his contention.
The stampede took place at a religious congregation in Uttar Pradesh's Hathras district on July 2. Over 2.5 lakh devotees had gathered in Hathras district's Phulrai village for the 'Satsang' conducted by Baba Narayan Hari, who is also known as Saakar Vishwahari and Bhole Baba.
The plea said such incident prima facie depicts serious lapse of responsibility, negligence, and lack of duty of care towards the public by the government authorities.
The plea said that there exists mechanical failure, lapse, and negligent action on the part of government authorities in not overseeing the security and safety measures regarding the gathering. The plea also sought a direction to the Uttar Pradesh government to submit a status report on the July 2 incident and to initiate legal action against officials and others for their negligent conduct.
The petitioner urged the apex court to issue a direction to all the state governments to submit a status of medical facilities available from the block/tehsil to the district level to deal with incidents of stampede. The petitioner stressed that such incidents have occurred in the past but there is no learning from them, therefore it is important to order an appointment of a judicial commission to investigate and submit a report.
“In India, there is a tradition of large religious gatherings in rural regions. Often, thousands of devotees’ throng to a squeezed place, with no basic facilities-- not even entry or exit points in case of emergency. Sometimes, the organisers of these events lack proper communication with the local authorities. This often resulted in the deadly stampede”, said the plea.
The plea said there are several questions which emerge from this horrific incident of Stampede thereby questioning the duty and lapse of state government and municipal corporation. “From the past decade various incidents have taken place in our country wherein due to the mismanagement, lapse in duty, negligent maintenance activities, there have been cases of huge public casualties which could have been avoided…”, said the plea.
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