Child dies in open pit: Cops rapped by HC for booking teacher

The Delhi High Court today came down heavily on the police for absolving PWD officials and prosecuting a government school teacher for the death of an 11-year-old student after falling in an open manhole in a city park.
Maintaining that it was "shocked", a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar said it failed to understand how the police could prosecute the teacher, accompanying the children to a picnic, and how he or she was supposed to know about the existence of an uncovered manhole in the park.
The court was hearing a matter after taking suo motu cognisance of the incident in which the school boy had fallen into an open water harvesting pit at the Millennium Park in south Delhi and died on December 21, 2015 during a school picnic. He had drowned before help could reach.

The court pulled up the police when it was informed that a criminal case had been lodged against the teacher and a charge sheet has also been filed.
"It took three hours for the fire brigade to find the child. How can you prosecute the teachers as you (PWD) have left the pit open? This is blatant prosecution. There is complete lack of vision. Tell us how much compensation you are going to pay to the child's family," the bench asked.
Directing the counsel to inform it about the compensation amount tomorrow, it said a wrongful attempt has been made in the affidavit to change the course of justice.

The counsel for Delhi government's Public Works Department (PWD) and the police said the children were under the control of the teachers who had come with them to the park for a picnic and one of the teachers had asked the child to bring something from their school bus.

To this, the bench shot back, "you keep the manhole open, you knew about the unauthorised parking there and then you say it was the teacher's fault. We feel that the sanction to prosecute the teacher is malafide."
It noted that while the PWD has accepted that there was a fault at its end as the pit was left open, it has absolved itself from any responsibility.

"We also find that PWD admits in the affidavit that there is lack of vigilance and the tanks should be covered. The incident which has occurred is tragic, where a boy on a picnic lost his life due to the negligence of the PWD which failed to discharge its duties and left the tank uncovered," it said.
"It is the duty of the government to maintain the health and safety of the public, especially in public areas. It is its duty that regular maintenance of tanks are done to see nothing is left open so that no life is endangered."

PWD's submission that it was difficult to inspect every manhole also did not go down well with the bench, which said it was "astonishing" and remarked that if the department knew that some covers of the pits were missing, it should have taken immediate steps to restore them.
Regarding the case lodged against the teacher, the court said he or she can face disciplinary proceedings but not criminal action.
"How can you prosecute the school teacher for the uncovered hole? The criminal case against the teacher must have detained him from his job," it said.
"You have not prosecuted any of the PWD officials and launched prosecution against the teacher. We cannot allow you to prosecute the teacher in this case," it added.

The court had earlier directed the authorities to ensure that such incidents do not recur and asked them to file an affidavit regarding the preventive measures.