SC slashes Uphaar relief to half halves relief to victims’ kin

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A combo TV grab shows the youth arrested for Wednesday attack on senior lawyer Prashant Bhushan in his Supreme Court chamber

The Supreme Court reduced the compensation for the families of the 59 victims of the Uphaar fire tragedy to almost half on Thursday, 14 years after one of the worst disaster in the national capital’s theatre history. The reduction was a major disappointment for the families.
The apex court also exonerated the MCD and Delhi police’s licence wing of financial liabilities arising out of the June 13, 1997 tragedy in which the fire occurred due to a spark from the Delhi Vidyut Board unit during the matinee show of the Hindi film Border.
In view of the MCD and Delhi police being freed from any vicarious liability, a bench of Justices R.V. Raveendran and A.R. Dave modified the Delhi high court order on the award by reducing compensation for victims above 20 years of age from `18 lakhs to `10 lakhs and for those below 20 years from `15 lakhs to `7.5 lakhs.
However, the apex court maintained the nine per cent interest on compensation imposed by the HC. The inclusion of interest on modified compensation would enable the victims’ families to virtually get almost the same amount of money as was awarded by the HC, excluding the interest.
In the process, the top court enhanced the liability of the theatre owners, the Ansal brothers, from 55 per cent as fixed by the HC in its 2003 verdict to 85 per cent. The remaining 15 per cent would be paid by the DVB, which was held jointly liable.
The HC had distributed the 45 per cent share of compensation among the DVB, MCD and police in equal proportions of 15 per cent.
While recommending abolition of the police’s power to grant licences to cinema halls and creating a licensing authority, the top court also reduced the “punitive” compensation of `2.5 crores imposed on the Ansal brothers by the HC to `25 lakhs. This amount was to be paid to the AIIMS Trauma Centre to improve facilities for disaster victims.
To prevent the recurrence of any such tragedy, the top court laid down 10 guidelines for the Delhi government to improve the theatre inspection system, grant of licences, improving disaster management facilities in traditional cinema halls as well as multiplexes with proper training to the staff and mock exercises twice a year.
As most of the deaths in Uphaar occurred due to the bolting of exits from outside, the top court made it mandatory that no cinema hall should be bolted from outside and exit gates should be easily accessible from both sides. In multiplexes there should be separate exits from each hall, the top court said.
The court set a deadline of three months for settling the compensation claim under the supervision of the HC registrar or an officer appointed by him.