Rejecting State government’s plea to keep its status report on stampede case in a sealed cover, the High Court of Karnataka has directed the government to give copies of the report, dated June 12, to all the parties to the PIL petition, which the court suo motu had initiated taking cognisance of death of 11 persons in the stampede occurred on June 4 outside M. Chinnaswamy stadium during RCB’s victory celebrations.
A division bench comprising acting Chief Justice V. Kameswar Rao and Justice C.M. Joshi passed the order while rejecting the stand of the government that if the status report is disclosed, the magisterial inquiry and the one-man commission of inquiry may get influenced by the status report submitted before the Court.
Not national security
Pointing out that the issue involved is not of of national security or privacy rights, the Bench said the ground that the magisterial inquiry/judicial commission of inquiry may get influenced by the stand/facts urged by the State in the status report “is unmerited as such a plea has no public interest angle and surely a retired High Court judge and an all India service officer, who are heading the judicial commission/magisterial inquiry cannot be susceptible to influences emanating from the status report.”
Referring to certain documents, which the government initially declined to make public, the Bench said that these were neither privileged documents nor they were discovered during the investigation being conducted on the criminal case registered on the stampede incident. The Bench noted that the some of the documents, which the government wanted to be kept in sealed cover, were of the year 2019 and some other were about deployment of police personnel and arrangements made by traffic regulating authority on prior occasions and June 6, the date on which the stampede occurred.
Published – July 14, 2025 10:05 pm IST
