On a petition filed by Advocate’s Association, the Jharkhand High Court on Monday initiated a Public Interest litigation (PIl) regarding the killing of young Advocate Dharmendra Kumar in a road accident near Morangi on January 21. Chief Secretary, Director General of Police, Principal Secretaries of the Department of Health, Medical Education and Family Welfare along with National Highways Authority have issued notices with a direction to file reply by January 27.
“Taking a serious not over the issue, Principal, District and Sessions Judge, Hazaribagh has been asked by the Court of Acting Chief Justice P K Mohanty and Justice Ananda Sen to conduct an inquiry and submit a report within 48 hours. The Chief Secretary has also been directed to intimate all concerned officers to cooperate in the inquiry,” said petitioner Hemant Sikarwar. The advocate was left dithering on the road for over one and a half hours but no one cared to take him to hospital, except the two youths, who showed courage to take him to hospital on auto rickshaw, he added.
It was alleged in the petition filed by Advocate’s Association that despite the accident, deceased was not administered proper treatment within time due to which he died and the same has once again exposed the sorry state of affairs with no empathy from either the police personnel or the medical fraternity in dealing with accident cases.
Furthermore, it was also alleged that there were no ambulance on the National Highways within that area for more than an hour. Even the police personnel of Charhi Police Station, who reached there, refused to help saying that the area did not come within their territorial jurisdiction, it said.
The advocate was finally rushed to the nearest hospital by two unknown persons by an auto-rickshaw who did not take proper care of the patient or any measures were taken to shift him to Sadar Hospital in Hazaribagh. In the mean time, no ambulance was provided by the Hospital.
“Considering it a serious matter, we direct the registry to register this petition as PIl and let notices be issued to Chief Secretary, Director General of Police, Principal Secretaries of the Department of Health, Medical Education and Family Welfare along with National Highways Authority,” ordered the Court.