Bengaluru, June 23 The Karnataka High Court on Monday appointed senior advocate S. Susheela as an amicus curiae to assist the court in connection with the June 4 stampede tragedy, which claimed 11 lives during the celebration of the victory of the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) near the Chinnaswamy Stadium.
A division bench, headed by the Acting Chief Justice V. Kameshwara Rao and comprising Justice C.M. Joshi, passed the order in this regard while looking into the suo motu case taken up by the court regarding the stampede tragedy.
The bench, before appointing the amicus curiae, stated that since the court had taken suo-motu cognisance of the matter, it deems it appropriate to appoint an amicus.
Meanwhile, the prosecution submitted the action taken report regarding the case till date in a sealed cover to the court. The counsels for the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) and the DNA event management firm sought time to file their replies to the petition.
The court said that the question of whether the report should be submitted in a sealed cover or not will be taken up for consideration after the appointment of an amicus curiae. The bench asked the amicus, senior advocate Susheela, to look into the government report and file the observations with the court. The matter was adjourned to June 1.
Meanwhile, the petitions seeking an increase in the compensation amount, claiming that the government is providing different compensation amounts to different classes of victims, were also filed with the court.
The petition claimed that Rs 25 lakh was given to those who died in the stampede at Chinnaswamy Stadium, but such compensation was not provided to those who died due to lightning strikes. Similarly, it was not given to those who died after consuming contaminated water in Tumakuru.
The petition demanded that the government ensure uniform compensation across all such incidents.
At this stage, the high court stated that it would not express any opinion on the matter. The hearing on all these petitions has been adjourned to July 1.
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