Jehangir Ali 
New Delhi: A petition in Jammu and Kashmir high court has alleged that the visit of a senior officer of J&K administration to the Vaishno Devi shrine on the New Year’s Eve in 2021 may have triggered the deadly stampede in which 12 pilgrims lost their lives.
The petition by senior advocate Sheikh Shakeel Ahmad has urged the court to initiate the contempt of court proceedings against Sanjeev Verma, commissioner secretary in J&K’s General Administration Department, Mandeep Bhandari, principal secretary to Lieutenant Governor, and Anshul Garg, the chief executive officer of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board (SMVDSB), the managing body of the shrine.
In his petition, Shakeel, a Jammu-based advocate, has alleged that the three officers have failed to implement the directions passed in the matter by the court last year. After hearing the matter, the court in an order on May 15 issued a notice to J&K administration to respond to the contempt petition within four weeks while listing the matter for hearing on July 10.
The incident dates back to the intervening night of December 31, 2021 and January 1, 2022 when 12 pilgrims were killed and more than two dozen injured in the deadly stampede at the Vaishno Devi shrine where millions of Hindu pilgrims pay obeisance every year.
J&K’s Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, who is also the Chairman of SMVDSB, had ordered a high-level committee (order no: 01-JK(GAD) of 2022) on January 1, 2022 to probe the stampede following massive outrage across the country.
The probe committee was asked to point out the lapses that had led to the deadly stampede, fix responsibilities for officials involved in managing the pilgrimage and suggest safety measures to prevent recurrence of such incidents at the holy shrine which is located atop Trikuta hills in Jammu’s Katra district.
Although the committee, headed by the Principal Secretary of J&K’s Home department which also included Additional Director General of Police, Jammu and Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, was asked to submit its report within seven days, Shakeel’s petition has alleged that the report hasn’t been made public more than two years after the incident and no action has been taken to fix the responsibility.
According to the petition, Shakeel’s attempts to obtain the inquiry report through the Right to Information route were stonewalled by J&K administration.
The petitioner also told the court that the questioning of devotees, who had registered to visit the shrine that day, and the footage of the CCTV cameras installed in and around the shrine complex could help in determining the exact cause of the stampede.
According to Shakeel, senior officers of the shrine board reportedly stopped the pilgrims from entering the shrine complex on the night of the incident to facilitate the visit of a top J&K officer, due to which a large crowd built up outside.
“The yatra was stopped reportedly for a considerable time, as the petitioner got reliable inputs that yatra was stopped to facilitate the Darshan of Holy Deity to a VVIP (reportedly a senior bureaucrat of the UT Administration) and because of this unprecedented development the unfortunate stampede took place,” the petition alleged.
After prolonged delay, the petitioner informed the court that he was “constrained” to write in 2022 to Bhandari, the principal secretary in LG’s office, to make the report public. However, “nothing was done even after the lapse of eight months” following which he filed a writ petition (PIL NO 12/2022) in the high court.
The petition urged the court to direct the administration to make the report of the inquiry committee public and act against the officials whose alleged negligence led to the accident.
After hearing the petitioner and the administration last year, the court said that it was “satisfied” with the measures taken by the SMVDS board to “regulate the smooth conduct of the yatra” in the accident’s aftermath. However, the court observed that the high-level committee was asked to submit its report within seven days which it hasn’t done.
“We have not been apprised of the said committee report,” a division bench of the high court said in its judgement April 26, 2023 while directing the administration to “take effective steps in furtherance of the decision/recommendation of the said committee so constituted for ensuring safety of the pilgrims and devotees.”
The administration had also assured the court in April last year that “appropriate action as warranted in terms of the report will be taken.” However, more than a year later, no action has been taken against the officials allegedly involved in the lapses that led to the stampede, Shakeel alleged in his petition.