'Locate HC blast victims, expedite their cases'

The Delhi High Court on Monday asked the Delhi State Legal Services Authority (DLSA) to locate victims of the bomb blast that took place on the High Court's premises in November 2011 and address their plights if any.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Harishankar while directing Digvijay Singh, Project Officer, DLSA said, "Find out the 13 victims of the blast. Listen to their plights. Also, see how many have been injured and ascertain their conditions. Expedite their cases in the courts and check why the cases are pending," the bench said.

The directions were given during the case hearing of the widow of one of the victims. Sangita Ashok, the wife of Ashok Kumar Sharma, who was killed in the bomb blast, stated that her son was not getting admission in any of the Delhi University colleges and that she could not afford to educate her son in a private institute. She also brought up a pending case of her husband's, in which he had challenged his ouster from a government job. "The matter has been pending since 2010. My husband was killed in the blast while he had come to the High Court for the hearing of his case," she said.

The court directed the standing counsel for Delhi University to look into the matter, and appointed advocate Jyoti Singh to argue her husband's pending case.