Elphinstone stampede: Why is there no law to compensate victims of such tragedy?
Elphinstone Railway Bridge stampede. Tragedy. 23 dead. Hundreds maimed. Happy Dussehra. What's new? Well, the usual suspects across the political divide have mouthed partisan comments. Of course, the Maharashtra government has announced a generous compensation of Rs 5 lakh each to the families of the dead. Mainstream media and the social media, in particular, is full of taunts, barbs and tirades - depending on your political affiliation or leaning. It is shocking that there is not even one story on why there is no law/legislation of meaning to take care of such calamities. No matter how hard we try, we are unlikely to see the cessation of such manmade disasters.
Then, should not the executive and legislature come up with a statute to provide succour and relief of a lasting kind, to enable the victims to get over the trauma and, possibly, the loss of an earning member of their family? The judiciary has done its best and, despite its repeated clarion calls, it is frustrating to see the executive and Parliament turning a blind eye to status quo. That, Mitron, adds to the agony in such moments of madness.
How many of us know or are even remotely aware that the pursuit of compensation for the victims, as a civil remedy, against the entity(s) responsible for the mishap can be traced to the antiquated Britsh-era legislation, Fatal Accidents Act, 1846?
The faultlines in that statute are far too many - too nuanced to recount in a non-academic piece like mine - whose purport is to nudge a response from the powers that be.
Surely, I am not looking to see this article go viral, touching the conscience of our representatives to goad them into action. Far from it. The expectation is not esoteric but grounded in reality: to inform the uninformed and, maybe just maybe, that it catches the eye of a "leader" who may take it up as a cause - even founded on his self-interest in public space, to build/consolidate a career.
Imagine, Right To Information Act, 2000 also had small beginnings. FA Act, 1846 is desperately seeking an overhaul to align with the times we live in.
In a series of decisions, notable among them being Bhopal Gas tragedy, Delhi Oleum gas leak, Uphaar fire tragedy, Gujarat Municipal boat capsize et al, the Supreme Court has been agonisingly seeking a response from executive/legislature - and even requesting the law commission of India to come up with a "repealed and replaced" version the FA Act, 1846. Alas, it is all lying in tomes in volumes without a concern.
The Elphinstone stampede is only the latest in a series of such manmade disasters. Surely, we seem so immune that after outraging for a brief while, We The People would be back to the business of political acrimony as we have no dearth of issues to indulge in.
More importantly, Elphinstone will occupy the physical and metaphysical space only of the ephemeral kind. We would not even know how the victims coped with the tragedy and whether the State actually played a role in assisting them. Truth is, that FA Act, 1846 is too old and near-obsolete and hopelessly inadequate to meet the ends of justice.
It's time the political class realised the futility of its divisions. Parliamentarians need to accept their total apathy and indifference to the need of the hour.
The executive has to treat this as another Nirbhaya moment, and act to envision a "repealed and replaced" FA Act, 1846. Surely, it is not the Obamacare kind to be trumped by one side or the other.
It would be simple and easy to build a consensus, for no politician worth his salt would even remotely dare any dissent for a new legislation which should meet the just compensation for victims - as a matter of legal right, not "solatium", at the whim and fancy of the State.
Legally, while doing away with the glaring limitations under FA Act, 1846, flagged off by the top court on many an occasion, the executive/legislature could innovatively tweak the provisions to provide for a mandatory insurance cover with a "no fault minimum" as well. If only there is will, there could be a way to mobilise the premium in many an innovative way - and there should be no shortfall at all.
A simple illustration on where the funding" could come from: as per Section 194-A of Income Tax Act, 1961, tax deduction at source is compulsory on interest liability to a victim over and above Rs 50,000 (10 per cent if a PAN card holder and 20 per cent to others), followed since 2001.
Hundreds of crores have accumulated - mostly from accident victims belonging to poor and underprivileged sections - that are refundable, but lying unclaimed with the State. This could be tapped into to create a meaningful corpus to repeal and replace the act with a mandatory insurance cover to provide for rightful, just compensation during such calamities, and even natural disasters, instead of looking to the State for a paltry "solatium".
With the story of the "Economy in decline" headlined now, Prime Minister Narendra Modi may do well to move past an archaic act. This would/could be a sure game changer akin to GST. It would be a great service to humanity at large and, specifically, to the agonised and afflicted victims' families, who deserve it more.