Hearing a Public Interest Litigation and also responding to a Bengal Government letter urging the Chief Justice to appoint a sitting Judge to inquire into the October 17 stampede inside a Durga Puja pandal at Chorbagan, killing 19 people, the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday directed the State Government to set up a commission of inquiry headed by a retired judge of the Court instead, to inquire into the case.
Referring to a Supreme Court guideline, the Division Bench of Chief Justice Ravindra V Ghuge said that a sitting judge of the High Court could be appointed to head an inquiry as was prayed for by the State Government.
Instead, the Bench directed the State Government to appoint a retired judge of the Court of its choice to head the inquiry commission.
Earlier, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari had said that his Government would write to the Chief Justice for appointing a sitting judge of the High Court to chair a Special Investigation Team (SIT) that was to be formed to probe the incident. “We will not appoint any member of the police or the Puja committee to avoid any kind of bias … instead our Chief Secretary would write to the honourable Chief Justice urging him to appoint a sitting Judge to head the SIT,” the Chief Minister earlier had said.
Meanwhile, the Chief Minister personally visited the bereaved families across the districts surrounding Kolkata and handed them over financial compensation of Rs 25 lakh each.
“Unlike the previous (TMC) Government, where they had joined Dandiya dance days after several people had died of electrocution and organized a carnival in Kolkata after a hundred devotees died in flash flood during immersion of idol in North Bengal… we are not that kind we are taking a humanitarian approach, he said in an apparent reference to former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, adding, “ we are reaching out to the people … we cannot bring the dead back but we will stand by them.”
Chief Minister Adhikari was visiting the bereaved families in Hooghly, Nadia and Howrah.
The Government had earlier announced compensation of Rs 25 lakh each to the next of kin of the dead and a Government job. The Centre had also announced Rs 2 lakh on its part.