The Calcutta High Court has ruled that a sitting judge cannot head the inquiry into the Chorebagan stampede that killed 19 people, prompting the Bengal government to announce that it will constitute a committee led by a retired judge of the court.
A division bench headed by Chief Justice Ravindra V. Ghuge said the state could appoint a retired judge of its choice. The court was hearing a public interest litigation filed by a lawyer seeking an independent investigation into the stampede at the Durga Puja pandal of the Chorebagan Sarbajanin Durgostav Samity in north Calcutta.
The state government had requested the appointment of a sitting High Court judge to lead the judicial inquiry. Chief secretary Manoj Kumar Agarwal had written to the chief justice on behalf of the government, with sources in the state administration saying the letter was sent on Monday. The court said a sitting judge could not be appointed for such an inquiry in line with a Supreme Court directive.
Chief minister Suvendu Adhikari said on Tuesday that the government would proceed with a retired judge. “We wanted the inquiry committee to be headed by a sitting judge. However, the chief justice has suggested that the inquiry committee be constituted under a retired judge. We will form the committee with a retired judge,” he said.
Adhikari said the inquiry report would be placed before journalists and on the floor of the Assembly once it was received. He also said the government would implement the committee’s recommendations to ensure that the following year’s Durga Puja was “foolproof”.
The stampede took place on Saturday evening at around 7.30pm, when hundreds of people were stranded near a narrow, curved exit that had been closed because of rain. Pressure from the crowd building behind them caused people at the front to fall and be trampled. Several others suffered serious injuries.
The incident has brought scrutiny to crowd movement, exit access and safety arrangements at large public gatherings. Police have arrested seven people so far, including two members of the puja committee. They have been charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder and attempting to commit culpable homicide.
Police said they had begun examining CCTV footage to establish how the incident unfolded and identify who was inside the sanctum sanctorum when the stampede occurred. The judicial inquiry will now proceed under a retired judge, while the police investigation continues separately.
