Hyderabad: Making it clear that respecting every religion was not at all a violation of secularism, the Hyderabad High Court on Tuesday dismissed a PIL seeking to declare as illegal the action of the Telangana and AP state governments in propagating the Maha Pushkaralu, and also seeking a probe into the stampede in which 29 people were killed in Rajahmundry through an independent agency.
A division Bench comprising acting Chief Justice Dilip B. Bhosale and Justice S.V. Bhatt was dealing with a PIL by Chilka Chandra Shekar of Guntur district, seeking to declare the action of both the governments in propagating religious programmes for the ongoing Pushkaralu as illegal.
The petitioner contended that the action of the respondents was in violation of Article 21 of the Constitution that deals with India being a secular country. The petitioner also asked the court to declare the district police superintendent as responsible for the stampede deaths of July 14 and also to declare registration of the 29 deaths merely as “unnatural” under Section 174 of CrPC as illegal.
He also urged the court to direct the AP government to conduct a probe into the stampede through an independent body and award a compensation of Rs 1 crore to each family of the deceased. The bench stated: “The claim of the governments in making arrangements cannot be called as publicity. It is not an invitation, it is providing information to the people.”
When the petitioner’s counsel sought for a probe into the stampede, the bench told him not club the issues and said that it was not inclined to entertain the PIL as the petitioner had apparently misunderstood the spirit of the secularism.
