New Delhi: The Supreme Court will hear a PIL on July 12 on the Hathras stampede incident, which took place on July 2, resulting in a maximum of 121 people dying. According to the PIL, an expert committee with a retired judge of the Supreme Court as a chairman has to be formed to investigate the root cause of the occurrence properly. Volunteering lawyer Vishal Tiwari, who raised the matter to the notice of CJI Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud, was told that CJI Chandrachud had already passed directions to list the case for hearing. The petition will list the specifics of the expert council, in which its composition should consist of five members.
The stampede in Hathras has caused a major controversy regarding crowd control and precaution measures when throngs of people are present. The PIL makes a consistent point that someone must be made accountable for such a tragedy and that adequate steps must be taken to ensure that it will not be repeated. The formation of the expert committee would involve a relevant investigation of the circumstances that led to the stampede as well as the actions of the local authorities to prevent the same in the future.
The stampede occurred at a time of public gathering in Hathras where no measures were taken properly regarding arranging large gatherings, and no proper plan was present to deal with such mishaps. Some of the indicators of psychological mobilization were the accounts of witnesses, who also described confusion and inadequate organization among the event’s manipulators and local authorities. The event has been a subject of heated debates and calls for justice from the side of the victims’ relatives and society members.
This is considered a breakthrough mainly because of the Court’s involvement in preventing another scenario where no one will be held accountable for the people’s suffering. The petition claims that such an investigation should be carried out by an expert committee working under the auspices of a retired Supreme Court judge. This approach is meant to eradicate any prejudice and self-interest issues that might occur if the investigation were to be done individually.
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