The court had further directed the presence of DDA’s vice chairman on the next date of the hearing if its orders were not followed. (File Photo)The Delhi High Court Tuesday expressed its dismay at the Delhi Development Authority after it failed to pay Rs 10 lakh compensation as directed by the court to the kin of two men who had died in a sewer.
The matter was heard by a division bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad wherein the Chief Justice said, “We are dealing with people who are working for us, and this is the manner that they have been dealt with by the authority… my head hangs in shame.”
On October 6, the bench had directed the DDA to pay compensation of Rs 10 lakh to each of the families of the two men who died after they inhaled toxic gases inside a sewer in a residential society in Outer Delhi’s Mundka last month. The court had then directed the landowning agency to inform it of the compassionate appointment of the dependants of the deceased within a period of 30 days.
The court had further directed the presence of DDA’s vice chairman on the next date of the hearing if its orders were not followed.
Today, vice chairman Manish Kumar Gupta, who was present in the court, was asked about the budget of the authority.
After Gupta informed the bench that the budget was Rs 3,000 crore, the bench remarked, “You have a budget of Rs 3,000 crore. We had requested you to pay only Rs 10 lakh and you have come up with all kinds of excuses… It would have been very easy for us to ask the state government to pay the amount back to the DDA.”
Justice Prasad also remarked, “There was no reason for you to violate para 5 of our October 6 order.” The court was of the view that the money was for financial security after the death of the “sole breadwinner” of the families.
The counsel appearing for the DDA argued that it was the duty of the Delhi government to pay the said compensation.
Santosh Kumar Tripathi, appearing for the Delhi government, informed the court that they had “separately paid as compensation” Rs 1 lakh each and the remaining Rs 9 lakh will be paid to them within 15 days.
Tripathi further said that the DDA is trying to mix up the direction of the Supreme Court in its 2014 judgment in Safai Karamchari Andolan & Ors v Union Of India wherein compensation of Rs 10 lakh has to be paid to the families of the deceased pertaining to sewer deaths. He further said that this decision of paying separate compensation was made as per a March 2020 decision of the Delhi cabinet. The HC recorded Tripathi’s statement that he had “categorically stated that the amount is not paid under the SC judgment”.
The bench said, “The conduct of the DDA reflects a completely unsympathetic attitude towards the family of the deceased persons.”
On the point of compassionate appointment, when the DDA’s counsel apologised for the delay, the HC said, “Don’t apologise to us; you owe an apology to the family of the persons who died while cleaning a gutter.”
The counsel for DDA sought 15 days to do the needful and was granted the same. The matter is next listed on December 2.
The incident took place on September 9 at a DDA apartment complex in Pocket D, Loknayak Puram. The police said the victims were identified as Rohit Chandilya, 32, a private sweeper who worked at the complex, and Ashok (aged between 28 and 30 years), a guard with the DDA who tried to rescue Chandilya.