NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a PIL for appointing a five-member expert committee under the supervision of a retired judge of top court, to look into Hathras stampede incident of July 2, 2024, which claimed 121 lives during a religious congregation.
A bench of Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra asked the petitioner advocate Vishal Tiwari to approach the High Court.
"Of course, these are disturbing incidents but the High Court is equipped to deal with it," the bench said.
The petitioner insisted the matter was also related to availability of medical facilities.
The bench said, "Everything does not have to come under Article 32 of the Constitution, you approach the High Court, instead of making a big deal into this."
Advocate Tiwari also sought a direction to the high-powered committee to suggest and frame guidelines and safety measures to avoid Hathras-like incidents in public gatherings.
He asked the court direct the State of Uttar Pradesh to submit a status report into the stampede incident and initiate legal action against the persons, authorities and officials, responsible for their negligent conduct.
The plea also claimed no lesson has been learnt from the past incidents.
"From 1954 Kumbh mela Stampede accident, leading to 500 casualties, and the recent incident of death of more than 100 people in the Stampede during Satsang event in Hathras district of Uttar Pradesh, it is clear and visible that nothing in the administration activity of our country has changed wherein such actions could have been avoided by showing reasonable duty of care," the plea claimed.
Quite often, there are reports of casualties occurring due to over crowd and lack of management by the administration and its municipal bodies thereby causing severe public casualties, it contended.
"After the stampede incident in Hathras, the scene was much horrific. In some videos, it is shown that the dead bodies were put in trucks like luggage one above another and in hospital there was no proper place to keep the bodies the dead bodies are shown lying here and there in undignified manner even without covers. It has also exposed that in emergency situation there is no strong medical system to deal with in proper manner," the plea said.
It stated the plea was filed under Article 32 of the Constitution to enforce the fundamental rights, particularly the right to life which is enshrined under Article 21, to avoid such incidents and to determine and initiate assessment to ensure safety, viability etc.
Just after the incident on July 2, the priest/Baba who organised the event is missing.
"Several questions have been raised on the administration and police arrangement. There was not any medical arrangement to face any such emergency situation neither adequate measures were taken to prevent such horrific incidents," it said.
"The Hathras incident depicted the drastic condition and fate of people due to the lapses, negligence and utter failure of administration purported by the government authorities," the plea said.
