The Supreme Court, on Wednesday, March 13, asked the Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court to appoint a District Judge or an Additional District Judge to determine the compensation payable to the families of those killed in a fire that broke out during a consumer fair Meerut in 2006.
A bench of Justices Hemant Gupta and V Ramasubramanian passed the order to the state government, and the organisers of the exhibition where the tragedy occurred are obligated to pay compensation. The compensation paid must be calculated under the principles of just compensation, similar to the payment of compensation to accident victims under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988.
Supreme Court Decisions
The court summoned that the state will be obligated to pay 40% of the compensation. In comparison, the organisers will be obligated to pay 60% and have asked Chief Justice to complete the task assigned within two weeks with a nominated judicial officer, who has to work on the issue day-to-day and send the report.
The court held, "The learned counsel has produced the list of deceased and injured persons for the petitioners. The amount of compensation payable to each of the victim, including the families of the deceased, have not been computed, and such amount is required to be computed in accordance with the principles of just compensation as in the case of accident under the Motor Vehicle Act, 1988 by the Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal," reported Bar and Bench.
The court further ordered the amount already paid by the state and deposited by organisers to be distributed to the victims. The District Judge must consider the above-said amount when calculating compensation for the victims. A final judgment was made after 16 years of such a horrifying accident.
2006 Meerut Fire Tragedy
The Meerut fire tragedy occurred on the final day of Mrinal Events & Expositions' India Brand Consumer Show in Victoria Park on April 10, 2006. At the time of the fire, nearly 2,000 people were present. The incident claimed the lives of 65 people and injured at least 161 others.
For this catastrophe, a petition was filed by Sanjay Gupta, who lost five family members in the fire. The petition asked the Supreme Court for the investigation of the case to be transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation and asked to provide families of the deceased be compensated with Rs 20 lakh and the injured with Rs 5 lakh.
According to Live Law, in June 2006, the state government constituted a one-member commission headed by OP Garg, a retired judge of the Allahabad High Court, to investigate the incident. But the investigation of the case was not conducted properly and was found to be unsustainable by the Top Court on July 31, 2014. The court later appointed a retired judge of the Supreme Court, Justice S.B. Sinha, as a one-man commission to look into the incident.
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