Drowning of 24 students: Himachal HC judgment Dec 9

The Himachal Pradesh High Court Monday decided to dispose of a petition Dec 9 related to the drowning of 24 students of a Hyderabad engineering college in the Beas river in June.

A division bench of Chief Justice Mansoor Ahmad Mir and Justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan, which treated a media report into the incident as a public interest litigation, directed the listing of the case Dec 9 for final disposal.

The court framed three points for the petition's disposal.

The first, as to what steps should be taken to prevent such incidents in future in the state.

The second, whether the investigation was rightly concluded or otherwise and whether the parents of the students can lay a motion before the trial court in terms of Section 173 (8) of the Criminal Procedure Code.

And the third, whether a final award can be made by the high court in a writ petition.

The 24 students of the V.N.R. Vignana Jyothi Institute of Engineering and Technology in Hyderabad and a tour operator were swept away June 8 near Mandi town after water from a nearby state-run hydropower project dam was released without warning. The students were on a tour to Manali.

Earlier, turning down a plea of the engineering institute to modify or recall its order to pay an interim compensation of Rs.2.5 lakh to the families of each victim, the high court directed the college management to refund the amount of tuition fee of the students within two weeks.

It also directed the state-run Larji hydropower project, responsible for the release of the water into the river, to pay an interim compensation of Rs.2.5 lakh to each family.

"Keeping in view the fact that the parents lost their sons/daughters, who were undergoing engineering course and were expected to be at least engineers, which is so painful and cannot be redressed by any relief, rather no substitute is available," the bench had observed.