New Delhi stampede: Delhi HC asks railways to take note of PIL

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday asked Indian Railways to examine the fixing of maximum passengers and sale of platform tickets — issues raised in a PIL over the recent stampede at the New Delhi railway station.

A bench of Chief Justice D.K. Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela asked the authorities concerned to state in an affidavit the details of measures taken on these issues.

"Let the issues raised in the petition be examined, as suggested by the solicitor-general, at the highest level at the Railway Board and thereafter an affidavit be filed by the respondent giving details of the decisions which might be taken by the Railway Board," the court ordered.

Solicitor-general Tushar Mehta said the matter was not taken in an adversarial manner and the railways was bound to follow the law. He said there was an "unprecedented" situation and assured the court that the issues raised in the PIL would be considered at the highest level.

The court said the PIL was not confined to the recent incident of the stampede as it sought implementation of the existing legal provisions with respect to maximum number of passengers in a compartment and sale of platform tickets. Had the legal provisions perhaps been implemented adequately, incidents such as the stampede could have been avoided, it added.

The matter will next come up on 26 March.

A PIL was also filed in the Supreme Court on 17 February, two days after the tragic incident that claimed 18 lives and left 15 injured, and sought immediate action to prevent such disasters in the future.

The PIL, filed by advocate Vishal Tiwari, sought a direction to the Centre and other authorities for implementation and consideration of a 2014 report by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) on 'Managing Crowd at Events and Venues of Mass Gathering'.