The Delhi High Court today dismissed the plea of Hyatt Regency Hotel's managing director and two others seeking quashing of summons issued to them by a trial court in a criminal negligence case in which a man had fallen from the sixth floor of the hotel and suffered serious injuries that had put him in a vegetative state.
Justice Anu Malhotra dismissed the petitions of Hyatt Hotel's MD Shiv Kumar Jatia, its senior managers Aseem Kapoor and Karan Lal, who had claimed that there was no negligence in their part.
Jatia, Kapoor and Lal had moved the high court in 2015 challenging the summoning order of the trial court on the grounds that there was no involvement and negligence on their part.
They had claimed that they provided timely medical help to the injured and there was no delay on their part.
Prosecutor Ashish Dutta opposed their pleas and said that there was a delay of over one hour by the accused who did not inform the PCR and ambulance in time.
Relying on a judgement of the Supreme Court, he said the golden hour is the first hour after any traumatic injury and doctors say that treatment is most likely to succeed during that period.
According to the prosecution, victim Gaurav Rishi, 30, had fallen off a ledge under construction connected to the five-star hotel's sixth floor lobby on October 16, 2013.
It had said that he had gone to the hotel to meet two of his friends and had stepped out to the terrace for a smoke. Medical reports had said he was not inebriated at the time of fall.
Besides the three, the trial court had in May 2015 also summoned as accused senior manager Pawan Kumar Singh, Asian Hotels (North), hotel's director of security Lt Col Deepak Khanijou and two other hotel staff PR Subramanian and Amit Ghildiyal in the case.
They were summoned for the alleged offence of endangering life or personal safety of others.
The Delhi Police had filed a charge sheet in the case against the accused in March 2015.
According to the police, the hotel had not implemented several licensing conditions on that day. It did not put in place emergency evacuation nor did it inform local police or the control room about the incident.
It had claimed that emergency lighting and self-luminescent markings were not provided in the terrace, emergency exits or staircases and neither was a guard deployed in the area.
It had also alleged that the terrace area under construction was made accessible to guests without any indication that the area was unsafe.
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