Hriday Shah
July 2nd, 2024, marked the day when more than 120 people lost their lives in a stampede at Hathras. More than 2,50,000 devotees of Bhole Baba gathered for a satsang or a prayer meeting in the district of Hathras in Uttar Pradesh and chaos followed after Bhole Baba got off stage to leave the event. Many rushed to touch his feet as he was leaving which led to hundreds of devotees suffocating to death or being crushed by the large mob.
Advocate Vishal Tiwari filed a Public Interest Litigation before the Supreme Court, alleging the negligence of the state officials and governments in providing guidelines and other directions to prevent such stampedes or other accidents or incidents for public safety as large gatherings. He requested the apex court to direct the State Governments to issue guidelines when a large number of people gather for an event.
The Petitioner also prayed for directing the State of Uttar Pradesh to submit a status report for the Hathras stampede. Further, in his PIL wherein he invokes the Writ of Mandamus (or direction), the Petitioner prays for an appointment of a Five-Member Expert Committee under the supervision of Retired Supreme Court Justice to enquire the incident.
In the Petition, he stresses on how this incident prima facie depicts the failure of responsibility, unfaithful duties and negligence by state officials and state governments and the number of such incidents taking place due to the latter. He also states that these incidents and loss of lives could be easily avoided, yet basic actions that are undone led to the increasing incidents.