HETALBEN JITENDRAKUMAR VYAS Vs. POLICE INSPECTOR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner has mainly approached this court with a grievance that there is no policy restraining the citizens from bursting crackers on public streets and, therefore, it has been prayed in the petition that the respondents should be directed to frame some policy restraining or regulating bursting of crackers on public streets/roads.

(2.) The circumstances in which the petitioner has approached this court, in a nutshell, are as under: (1) On 10.2.2003, when the petitioner was passing through a road in Sabarmati area of Ahmedabad with her son Aryan, aged about 2 years, a marriage procession of son of respondent No. 5 was passing through the said road and the members of the procession were also bursting fire crackers on the road as a part of celebration. All of a sudden, one of the fire crackers bursted in such a way that it hit and damaged one of the eyes of the petitioner's son, named, Aryan. The child started bleeding from his right eye and he had to be rushed to a hospital. In spite of all possible efforts of the doctors, Aryan lost sight of his right eye. The doctors treating the child have opined that the child will never have vision in the eye which has been lost due to the damage caused by the cracker. It has been stated by the petitioner that she had spent substantial amount of money for treatment of the child, but all her efforts were in vain as the child is unable to see through the damaged eye even today. (2) In the aforesaid circumstances the petitioner has approached this court with a prayer that the government authorities should be directed to frame a policy or enact some rules and regulations banning bursting of crackers on public streets/roads and Respondents Nos. 4 and 5 should be directed to pay compensation to the petitioner.

(3.) Looking to the nature of litigation, the learned single Judge before whom the petition was notified for hearing directed that the petition should be treated as a public interest litigation and, therefore, this petition has been placed before this court.