Taking suo motu notice of the very high death toll during the ongoing Amarnath pilgrimage, the Supreme Court on Friday set up an 11-member committee under the chairmanship of Jammu and Kashmir governor to go into the reasons for it and suggest measures for better facilities during future pilgrims.
The committee would have Union home secretary, secretary environment and forest, secretary health, secretary central pollution control board, chief secretary of J&K, state’s DGP and director-generals of BSF, CRPF and border road organisation secretary home and PWD of Jammu and Kashmir as members.
A bench of Justices B.S. Chauhan and Swatanter Kumar took suo motu action in view of the media reports about death of over 80 “Amarnath yatris” so far, which is all-time high, and the “inadequate” medical facilities and other arrangements. “Lack of public amenities, facilities, health care, particularly the high rate of mortality, which has been highlighted in the various press reports… requires attention of all concerned. This being a matter of serious concern, involving technical, geographical and environment issues… it is not a matter which can be ignored by this court, as the basic and fundamental rights of the citizen are at stake,” the bench in its order said.
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Prajapati case: CBI told to finish probe by Aug. 14
age correspondent
New Delhi, July 20
After rejecting the Gujarat government’s review petition last week for reconsidering the order for CBI investigation into Tulsiram Prajapati encounter case, the Supreme Court on Friday set a deadline of August 14 to complete the probe and filing of the final report.
The CBI has named former Gujarat home minister Amit Shah and state’s former anti-terror squad (ATS) chief D.G. Vanzara and some other IPS officers among others as accused.
The agency had claimed that Prajapati, a local “gangster” was killed in a stage-managed encounter by the ATS team under Mr Vanzara as he was the key witness of the “fake encounter” of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, another gangster and his wife Kausaur Bi, who was also eliminated as she was the witness to her husband’s extra-judicial killing.
A bench of Justices B.S. Chauhan and Swatanter Kumar told the counsel for CBI that no further extension would be given to the agency as it already has overstepped the deadline of July 30, fixed earlier for completing the investigation in the six-year-old case.