Delhi HC refuses to entertain plea seeking judicial inquiry, CBI probe in Delhi Anaj Mandi fire

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday refused to entertain the petition seeking judicial inquiry as well as transferring the case to CBI into the Azad Mandi fire incident while stating that the authorities should be given adequate time to handle the situation.

The Division Bench of Justice DN Patel and Justice C Harishankar while dismissing the PIL stated that, authorities are having enough and adequate department, officers and the equipment.

"They are already working to extinguish the fire and also deliberating to stop such incidents in future. The city of Delhi is thickly populated. Stray incidents here and there are always happening when there is urbanisation," the Bench said.

However, the Division Bench said that the court can look into in the incident in case there is inaction on part of "respondents".

"No Petition can be preferred in a day or two of the incident just by reading the newspaper. Time ought to be given to the authorities. There is a procedure on how things work in a government department. There is no one-man show in the government. We see no reason to entertain in one or two days of the incident. If there is inaction on part of respondents, the incident in question, after a reasonable period, the court can look into it," it added.

The counsel for the respondents said that they are deliberating upon this and there are already existing policy decisions which are being followed.

The petition was filed on Monday seeking the court's direction for ordering a judicial enquiry by the retired judge of the court and transferring the investigation to CBI into the fire incident in Anaj Mandi on Sunday in which 43 people lost their lives.

The plea also sought to constitute a committee of experts to frame a proper mechanism and guidelines in order to avoid the fire incident like Azad Mandi in the national capital in future.

Petitioner Advocate Awadh Kaushik through this petition sought framing of some strict mechanism and guidelines and for ensuring strict adherence so that the incidents like this may not occur in future.

"Since the delinquency, felony and laxity in the duty on the part of the officers/authorities concerned, apart from the private persons, in the present case is nothing but a criminal offence having been committed by them with common mindset and hence, the matter requires not only a judicial enquiry to be conducted by the Retired Judge of this Hon'ble Court but it also requires to be investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or any other central investigating agency to bring the culprits to justice," the plea stated.

"It has been reported that not only the building was illegally constructed but even the manufacturing factory of plastic packing materials was being run therein illegally and without any registration, license, authority, certificate and even fire safety arrangements," it said.