Patna High Court has taken suo motu cognizance of a news item on the video of a child trying to wake up his dead mother at Muzaffarpur Railway Station Calling the incident “shocking and unfortunate”.
Chief Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice S Kumar took note of an article titled “Video of a child trying to wake up his dead mother goes viral” which was published in Patna edition of Times of India on May 28.
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The Court said that the following issues would warrant immediate attention while highlighting the dead mother video :
- Whether the postmortem of the dead-body was conducted ? If yes, what was the cause of death? Did the lady actually die of hunger ?
- Was she travelling alone with her sibling? If not, who all were her companions?
- What action stands taken by the law enforcing agencies?
- Were the relatives of the deceased informed of the incident?
- Were the last rights of the deceased performed as per the custom, tradition and the instructions issued by the government?
- Who is now taking care of the children/sibling(s), who unfortunately lost their mother in these times of distress?
The Court has appointed Advocate Ashish Giri as Amicus Curaie in the matter.
Central Government, Indian Railway and Bihar Government were added as Respondents to the petition. The Court also asked the counsel for Bihar Government to ascertain if this particular incident was being considered by the Supreme Court in the suo motu petition before it.
Read the order here:
