HC orders reinstallation of memorial for blast victims

An emotional outburst by the widow of one of the victims of the 2011 bomb blast at the Delhi High Court over visitors trampling upon the memorial there, today prompted Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal to order their reinstallation with "full respect".
"Aap agali baar jab court aaoge to aisa nahi dikhega (when you come to the court next time, you will not find the memorial lying in this condition)," Justice Mittal said.
Justice Mittal, who was presiding the bench along with Justice C Hari Shankar, ordered the "honourable installation of the memorial plate at the place it was". The plate carried the names of those who had lost their lives in the blast.

"It has to be given full respect," the bench said while listening to the 57-year-old widow, who had lost her husband in the September 7, 2011 terror attack at the reception counter of the High Court that had claimed 17 lives and left 76 injured.
The widow broke down in the court while narrating the manner in which the people were stepping over the memorial plate.
The bench called the officer in-charge and directed that the memorial be put in place immediately or by tomorrow and "be given full honour."

The woman, who had clicked photographs of the broken memorial plates and people stepping on them, on her mobile phone showed them to the judges during the hearing of her plea for direction to the Delhi University to admit her 20-year-old son in this academic year.

Sangeeta Ashok, the woman, also informed the court that as per its order, the children of the victims were to be rehabilitated but the university had denied admission to her son as she was not able to fill the form in a prescribed format.
The denial of admission had pushed her son into depression, she said.
The high court's earlier order had come on plea filed by advocate Gaurav Kumar Bansal, seeking court's direction to the government to ensure social security for the terror attack victims and their relatives.
Allowing the PIL the high court had also asked the Centre to consider providing education to the victims' children and directed the Delhi government to provide jobs to eligible children of victims.

Taking note of this, the bench today directed the Delhi university to look into it and take necessary steps so that the student was admitted in this academic year.
It also asked the High Court's concerned department to find out about the plight of the families who had lost their dear ones in the blast.
The bench also wished to know the status of the pending case of those who had died in blast of September 7, 2011.
It appointed a lawyer to contest the woman's case pending in the high court, relating to her husband's pension.
A powerful blast had ripped through the reception counter of the Delhi High Court complex on September 7, 2011.