Allahabad High Court Takes Suo Moto Cognizance of Hathras gang rape, cremation of Victim seeks report from UP Govt, Police [Read Order]
(Judicial Quest News Network)
The Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court has summoned top Government official to the court over the Hathras incident. The pre-dawn cremation of 19-year-old woman who is stated to have been gangraped and mutilated before succumbing to her injuries in Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital.
The order passed by a bench of Justices Ranjan Roy and Jaspreet Singh States,
“The incidents which took place after the death of the victim on 29.09.2020 leading up to her cremation, as alleged, have shocked our conscience, therefore, we are taking Suo moto cognizance of the same.”
The has taken serious note of reports indicating that the body of the Victim was forcibly cremated without the consent of her family.
The Court states that “Today we find constrained to take cognizance of an extremely sensitive and important matter touching upon the basic human fundamental rights of the citizen of this country and residents of this State based on certain newspapers items and programs shown in audio-visual media, according to which a young girl of 19 years, a resident of District-Hathras in the State of Utter Pradesh was subjected to gang rape and in this process not only her bones were broken but her tongue was also mutilated presumably with the intent that she may not disclose tha names of the perpetrators of this abominable crime.
The Court Adds:
“The matter before us, of which we have taken Suo moto cognizance is of immense public importance and public interest as it involves allegation of high handedness by the State Authorities in violation of the basic human and fundamental rights not only of the deceased victim but also of her family members. As it is the deceased victim was treated with extremely brutality by the perpetrators of the crime and what is alleged to have happened thereafter, if true, amounts to perpetuation the misery of the family and rubbing salt on their wounds.”
Media reports informed that family was prevented from seeing the victim, even as they begged the police not to cremate. The High Court notes that while the Police Authorities later insisted that the cremation had been done with the family’s consent, media interviews with the family of the victim suggested otherwise.
The Further said that “The rights of individual citizens in the Country and the State especially that of the poor and the downtrodden such as the family members of the deceased victim and the deceased herself are paramount and the Courts of Law are under a bounden duty to see that the said rights available under the Constitution are protected at all costs and the State does not in its misplaced endeavor for political or administrative reasons transgress the limits of its powers to encroach and violate such rights, especially in the case of poor and the weak. We would like to examine as to whether the economic and social status of the deceased’s family has been taken advantage of by the State Authorities to oppress and deprive them of their Constitutional rights?”
Mentioning the relevance of the Article 25 of the Constitution the Court added that if the reports are true, since the family was prevented from performing the final religious rites for the victim before cremation. “We Would like to examine whether the economic and social status of the deceased’s family has been taken advantage of by the State Authorities to oppress and deprive them of their Constitutional rights?”
The bench also said that it will leave open the question of whether there is necessity to monitor the investigation or to get investigation done by an independent agency as per law.
The Court has Directed the Senior Registrar of the Court’s bench of Lucknow to register a Suo Motu Public Interest Litigation the title In Re : Right to decent and dignified last rites/cremation” and place it before the appropriate Bench having jurisdiction to hear Public Interest Litigations
The matter has been listed on 12.10.2020. On the said date the Additional Chief Secretary/Principal Secretary (Home), Director General of Police, U.P. Lucknow, Additional Director General, Law and Order, U.P., District Magistrate, Hathras, Superintendent of Police, Hathras shall appear before this Court and put forth their version with support of requisite material. They shall also apprise the Court about the status of the investigation relating to the crime against the deceased victim.
[Read the Order]
