DDA’s non-payment of compensation to sewer death victim’s invokes HC’s ire

New Delhi, 16 November 2022: The Delhi High Court’s chief justice has expressed regret on the “very insensitive attitude” of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) toward the relatives of the two people who died in a sewer this year, stating “My head hangs in shame.”

The high court said they had asked the authorities to pay the amount to the victims’ kin as they had lost their only bread earners in the incident. The high court was irate over the DDA’s failure to comply with its order from October 6, which required it to pay 10 lakh compensation to each of the families of the deceased.

On September 9, a security guard and a sweeper died in the Mundka neighbourhood of outer Delhi after breathing in hazardous vapours from a sewer. The tragedy happened when a sweeper went below to clean the sewer and passed out. A security guy who ran to help him also passed out, and they both died.

The high court heard the public interest litigation brought on by the court itself and expressed its displeasure over the DDA’s failure to pay the families of the victims the equivalent of 10 lakh each and claimed that “not even a single penny” had been released.

It did, however, mention that the Delhi government had already given each of the two families Rs 1 lakh as part of a separate settlement and that the remaining Rs 9 lakhs will be given to them within 15 days.

“We are dealing with those who are working to improve our quality of life. And the way the authorities are handling them is in this way very regrettable,” observed a bench consisting of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad.

My head hangs in humiliation, the chief justice continued. “As of November 15, we have been since October 6. Why was it not done when the court ordered DDA to pay the amount?,” the bench questioned.

The DDA’s legal representative argued that the Delhi government is obligated to make the payment. Santosh Kumar Tripathi, standing counsel for the Delhi government, claimed that the DDA was attempting to confuse the compensation that must be paid in accordance with the Supreme Court’s order and that the amount of 10 lakh that the Delhi government must pay was determined by a cabinet decision on March 5, 2020.

The bench stated that although the issue of liability could have been resolved in the future, the court was concerned that something urgently needed to be provided to the impacted families.

“You have a budget of ₹ 3,000 crores and we requested you to pay only ₹ 10 lakh as an immediate measure and you came up with all kinds of excuses. Later we could have adjusted the amount by fixing the responsibility. We asked you to pay so that there is some financial and emotional sense of security to the families who have lost their bread earners,” the bench said.

They further sought the court to grant 15 days to allow for the rehabilitation and compassionate appointment of one of the dead person’s family members who worked for the DDA. “We are not concerned with any other compassionate appointments,” the court declared. Priority must be given to this one. DDA was given 15 days to complete that.

The court stated, “The conduct of DDA demonstrates a very insensitive attitude toward the families of the deceased.”