"Ensure No Repeat Of '2019 Liquor Tragedy'; Pursue Criminal Cases Diligently": Allahabad High Court To UP Govt

Dealing with a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) plea filed in respect of liquor tragedy which occurred in District Barabanki and District Sitapur in May, 2019, the Allahabad High Court recently asked the Uttar Pradesh Government to ensure that in future, these types of incidents do not occur.

The Bench of Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice Jaspreet Singh also said that it expects that all the criminal cases registered and the departmental proceedings initiated against the guilty officers in this case be pursued diligently so as to take them to their logical end.

Essentially, as per the report of Indian Express, in May 2019, a few days after 18 people died of spurious liquor from a licensed shop in Barabanki, three people had died after consuming liquor in the neighboring Sitapur district.

Soon thereafter, a PIL was filed by petitioner-in-person Satyendra Kumar Singh with regard to this incident, and by means of an order dated July 19, 2019, the Court had required the State to file an affidavit within a period of four weeks.

In pursuance thereto, an affidavit had been filed by the Additional Chief Secretary (Home) in August 2019, wherein, the details of the action taken in pursuance of the incident were specified.

It was specifically stated in the affidavit that a number of officers in the Excise Department were placed under suspension in contemplation of a departmental inquiry and that the departmental inquiry had also been initiated against the officers/officials who were found prima facie responsible.

The affidavit also mentioned the fact that action had been taken against police officials for dereliction of duties and ten First Information Reports were registered for various offences.

In fact, the affidavit had also furnished the details of various cases registered for illicit liquor in the last five years to indicate that wherever such incidents were reported, prompt action was taken by the State.

It was also specifically mentioned in the affidavit that families of 23 victims have also been given financial aid of ₹2,00,000/- each from the discretionary funds of the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.

Lastly, the affidavit had given the details of a special drive conducted against spurious liquor and it also referred to the guidelines dated 30.06.2019, which had been issued to ensure that such incidents are minimized and prompt action is taken.

In view of this, noting that it was evident that the action has been taken by the State, though, after the writ petition was filed before the Court, the Court had disposed of the plea by observing thus:

"We expect that all the criminal cases registered and will the departmental proceedings initiated against the guilty officers be pursued diligently to take them to their logical end and ensure that in future these types of incidents do not occur."

Case title - Satyendra Kumar Singh v. Union Of India through Secretary & Others 

Click Here To Download Order

Read Order