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Judgement of the Supreme Court of India regarding unprecedented flood and landslide disaster in Uttarakhand in 2013, 08/05/2017

  • 08/05/2017

Judgement of the Supreme Court of India in the matter of Foundation for Restoration of National Values Vs Union of India & Others dated 08/05/2017 regarding unprecedented flood and landslide disaster that occurred in Uttarakhand in 2013. The disaster led to widespread damage to life, limb and property and according to the petitioners, the adverse impact of the disaster could have been mitigated had there been effective implementation of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 and adequate preparedness by the State Government of Uttarakhand. It was alleged in the writ petitions that many of the other States were also not fully prepared to deal with a disaster and therefore necessary directions ought to be given by this Court for proper implementation of the Act.

Supreme Court while disposing of the writ petitions observed that here has been sufficient compliance with the provisions of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 and it is not necessary for us to issue any particular directions. Apex Court further suggests it would be advisable for the NDMA to regularly publish its Annual Report (the last one on record is of 2013-14), to review and update all plans on the basis of experiences and to make its website ndma.gov.in multilingual so that all concerned may benefit.