Will state act against all responsible for Subhasri’s death?

Justices M.Sathyanarayanan and N.Seshasayee expressed their anguish in slamming the government and the local authorities for their 'bureaucratic apathy'.

They expressed what 'We The People' have always felt -- “We are tired of passing order after order against the erection of flex boards in public spaces”.

The judges were pained that a young woman had 'to spill blood and be run over by a tanker'.

“How many more litres of blood do you want to paint the roads with?” they furiously asked the Advocate General who had the unfortunate duty to face their ire. Have we not heard these words before? It is familiar territory for us. Too many lives have been lost and Subhasri was the latest and surely not the last one.

Subhasri Ravi, a 23-year-old software engineer, was crushed to death by a water tanker at Pallikaranai in Chennai on Thursday. She was on her way back home from work and was thrown off her scooter after an illegal hoarding erected on the road divider fell on her. She lost her balance and was run over. The hoarding was reportedly erected in celebration of the wedding of a ruling party functionary's son at JD Mahal on Pallavaram-Thoraipakam radial road.

While the driver of the water tanker was promptly arrested and charged with negligent driving, former AIADMK councillor C Jayagopal was booked for erecting the illegal hoarding. Acting on a complaint of an assistant engineer of the Chennai corporation, the police registered a case against Jayagopal under the Section 4 of The Tamil Nadu Open Places (Prevention of Disfigurement) Act, 1959 for installing the hoarding without permission .The Corporation had earlier filed a case under Section 326 of the Chennai City Municipal Corporation Act, 1919 too.

It is all fine to initiate such proceedings. What of the political party culture that is uniquely Tamilian? It is an on your face genre that flex boards and hoardings are erected in public places. Bang in the middle of the roads and the medians in place, come in handy. There is a huge industry thriving on this culture and no matter the spate of orders being passed by the Justices, they keep coming up and going down. The flex boards stand as symbols to the limit to the remit of the High Court.

Here is what a Chief Justice of Madras High Court said during a hearing, “We are genuinely curious as to whether the powers that be backed by political parties, at all care to implement our orders. Or they are merely marking attendance and recording them for pushing papers. Every day, as we cross Kamarajar Salai (Beach Road), the Flex boards and hoardings mock at us and our orders. We wonder whether Rule of Law has any relevance. Are we fooling ourselves in passing such orders? Would you like us to concede defeat that Judiciary's power is thus far and no further Executive's shall prevail. Please tell us. So that we need not waste valuable court time in passing futile orders.”

This gentleman Judge is now in the Supreme Court and probably reading the sad news of Subhasri, which he tried his best to prevent, but sadly failed.

Do the parents have a case against the Municipal Corporation and Government? Of course, yes. Mr.Raju Govind Dansingani, a B.Com graduate, was working as a coach on a monthly salary of Rs.30, 000 at M/s.America Online Member Service India Pvt. Ltd. He was posted at Bangalore. On the date of the accident on 9 September 2005, he came to Chennai from Bangalore to take part in a family celebration. At about 10.00 pm, he along with his wife went to his sister's house residing at 6th Avenue, Anna Nagar, Chennai. After parking their car, they were walking towards the gate of the sister's house. Suddenly, an electric pole on the pavement landed on his head and he became unconscious. Thereafter, he was rushed to Sundaram Medical Foundation Hospital in Anna Nagar. The injured regained consciousness only on September 11, 2005.

The case of the injured was that the accident was one caused by the negligence of the Electricity Board that while providing for underground cable, they had failed to remove the post, which was standing without any stay wire. They were also negligent in not observing necessary precautions for securing the post from falling. In the circumstances, the accident had occurred purely on account of the negligent conduct of the department resulting in his permanent disability. By orders 30 Sept. 2011, (TNEB vs Raju Govind Dansighani) a Bench of two judges of Madras High Court, passed an award for Rs.65.15 lakh with interest and costs. TNEB paid up.

Going back further in time, three persons died as a result of the collapse of the Clock Tower in Chandni Chowk, Delhi, belonging to the Delhi Municipal Corporation. The trial court held that it was the duty of the Municipality to take proper care of buildings so that they should not prove a source of danger to persons using the highway as a matter of right, and awarded compensation to the legal representatives of the victims. Confirming the awards, the Supreme Court by orders 24 Feb. 1966 ruled, “The legal position is that there is a special obligation on the owner of adjoining premises for the safety of the structures which he keeps besides the highway. If these structures fall into disrepair so as to be of potential danger to the passers-by or to be a nuisance, the owner is liable to anyone using the highway who is injured by reason of the disrepair. In such a case it is no defence for the owner to prove that he neither knew nor ought to have known of the danger. In other words, the owner is legally responsible irrespective of whether the damage is caused by a patent or a latent defect.”

The liability of the Chennai corporation is writ large for Subhasri's death. Defiance of the laws against such flex boards and repeated orders of the High Court lend muscle to fix responsibility on the public authorities and the party functionary.

Truth to tell, the arrest of tanker driver is a pointer. After all the hoopla over the killing of Subhasri, her life would become the subject matter of a petition for compensation before a motor accidents claims tribunal against the owner and insurer of the tanker and all but forgotten. None of us would care to follow up on proceedings against the party functionary, Chennai Corporation, and the state government functionaries who miserably failed to implement the series of orders of the high court .This is not being cynical, but being realistic from experience.

Besides, it is not just about violating the court order in erecting the banner; it's about causing Subhasri's death by erecting the banner. It's about erecting that killer-banner.

Unless the high court extracts an affidavit of compliance from the State Government, on the contours of accountability and identification of authorities with whom the buck stops and promises action against those in breach, Subhasri's death may be in vain. As for the political parties, they are a law unto themselves and such 'gory celebrations' have become germane to their Tamil pride and culture.

Isn't it time courts cracked the whip against them too, lest their banners do not pop up again on pavements and medians?

(The writer is a practising advocate in the Madras high court)