A Saket Court staffer who died by suicide in January was 60 per cent physically disabled by birth and, in a note recovered after his death, had requested that light duties be assigned to persons with disabilities, the Union Law Ministry told the Lok Sabha on Friday.
Responding to a question by Shiv Sena (UBT) MPs Sanjay Haribhao Jadhav and Arvind Ganpat Sawant, the Ministry said that the suicide note cited work-related pressure as the reason for the act and also stated that no individual was held responsible for the incident.
The disclosure was made by Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Law and Justice Arjun Ram Meghwal. The response said.
"The deceased, who was 60% physically handicapped by birth, requested that light duties be assigned to persons with disabilities."
According to the government, a PCR call was received at around 10:23 am on January 9 regarding a person having fallen from the terrace of the main building of the Saket Court Complex. The police reached the spot and found that the injured person had already been shifted to Pushpawati Singhania Research Institute, Malviya Nagar, where he was declared brought dead.
The deceased was identified as Harish Singh Mahar, aged about 43 years, who was working as an ahlmad in Digital Traffic Court No. 27 at Saket Courts.
The government said that no foul play came to light during the investigation.
It confirmed that a suicide note was recovered from the pocket of the deceased by the attending doctor.
“As per the contents of the note, the deceased mentioned work-related pressure as the reason for committing suicide and stated that no person should be held responsible for the incident,” the reply stated.
In response to a query on the number of similar incidents, the Centre stated that it does not maintain a database of suicides within court complexes over the last five years.
The Law Ministry said that the safety and security of all stakeholders in court complexes is a matter of priority. However, it clarified that court security and day-to-day management of court complexes fall within the domain of the State governments and Union Territories, in coordination with the respective High Courts.
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