Chorebagan Stampede Calcutta High Court Declines to Monitor Probe, Allows State to Appoint Former Judge
The Court observed that it shall be at the discretion of the Chief Justice to spare a Judge of the High Court who could head the Commission. And if there is no Judge that can be spared then the State government can nominate any retired Judge of the High Court.
Calcutta High Court observed on Tuesday that the State government can nominate any retired Judge of the High Court to head the commission to enquire into the lapses, mismanagement and negligence which lead to Chorebagan stampede on 17th October during Durga Puja.
Bench of Chief Justice Ravindra Vithalrao Ghuge and Justice Shabbar Rashidi observed that the State government had written to the Court asking the Court to spare a Judge of Calcutta High Court who could head the commission.
It was observed by the Court that it shall be at the discretion of the Chief Justice to spare a Judge who could head the Commission and if there isn't any Judge that can be spared then the State government can nominate any retired Judge of the High Court.
"It is open for the Chief Justice to spare any Judge of this Court who can act as chairperson of the inquiry commission. On the administrative front it is up to the Chief Justice to take such decision. If the Chief Justice doesn't see fit to spare any serving Judge to head the inquiry commission then it shall be upon the State government to take necessary steps under the Commission of Inquiries Act, 1952 to form a commission to inquire about the unfortunate incident that took place on 17.10.2026 and can nominate any retired Judge of this Court to head the Commission provided it's done in consonance with the law," read the order.
The Court made it very clear that they shall not be monitoring the inquiry.
"We would like to put it on record that keeping in view the provisions of the Commission of Inquiries Act that this Court shall not be monitoring the inquiry conducted by the Commission. The report which is submitted to the State government shall be looked into by the State government," said the Court.
This was observed while hearing a PIL filed by Tapas Kumar Dey who wanted an inquiry to be held to find out what all led to the stampede.
The Chorbagan Sarbojonin Durga Puja Pandal witnessed 19 people losing their lives. Which included a minor who was 7 years old.
Earlier the State government had written a letter to CJ Ravindra Vithalrao Ghuge stating that they would like to form a commission to investigate the cause of the stampede.
Some points of reference mentioned in the letter were to see what all factors contributed to the incident. What all happened that day and why the incident took place. CCTV footages, call records, police station and control room footages should be seen to find out whether all crowd and disaster management protocols were followed.
Senior Advocate Kalyan Bandopadhyay who was acting for the petitioner said that crowd is usually managed by opening up lanes in the Durga Pujas which are narrow and that has been the practice for a long time.
He also pointed out that due to a change in regime there was a change in Durga Puja Committee Members and they appointed people who are not capable of taking such responsibility.
Another factor was the decorations built at the Chorbagan Pandal. Elevated platform, low air circulation and light were the other problems at the Pandal. Due to which when the crowd burst into panic there wasn't enough police and management who were stationed at the Pandal to prevent it.
There was some rainfall that was also reported in the area which aggravated the situation.
Advocate General of the state Mr. Billwadal Bhattacharyya said that since the government has requested the Chief Justice to spare a Judge who can look into the incident there is no point in going through the petition.
Since the arguments were being heard about whether or not there was availability of sufficient strength of judges present.
"We take note that there are total 72 sanctioned strength of judges in this court. Presently there are only 50 judges working in the Court. One of our judges Hon'ble Smt. Justice Shampa Dutt(Paul) is set to retire on 27/10/2026. One more Judge of this Court Mr. Justice Apurba Sinha Ray will demit his post on 25th Nov, 2026. So we will have a strength of 48 Judges."
The Court decided not to issue any direction to spare any sitting Judge and instead asked the State government to nominate a retired judge to head the inquiry.
However it didn't close the petition and left it open for the petitioner to come to the Court if needed.
Senior Advocate Kalyan Bandopadhyay along with Advocate Suman Sengupta, Anit Kr. Das, Ashish Dutta, Zoaib Rauf, Rahul Kr. Singh appeared for petitioner.
Mr. Billwadal Bhattacharyya, Additional Advocate General, DN Ray, Government Pleader, Anindya Basu, Advocate, Pratip Mukherjee, Advocate, Indradeep Pal, Advocate and Bikash Kumar Sriwastav, Advocate were present for the State.
