Uphaar tragedy: SC warns authorities against blame

New Delhi, Dec 3: Supreme Court on Dec 2 instructed authorities to come out of the blame-game and arrive at a consensus in providing compensation to those affected in the Uphaar Cinema tragedy in which 59 people were killed in Jun 1997.

"As far as the Delhi Vidyut Board, MCD and DCP (licensing) are concerned, all are statutory authorities. Why don't you sort it out instead of blaming each other. Show your grace and try to come out with a common solution to the amount of compensation," said the bench of Justices R V Raveendran and K S Radhakrishnan.

The stern reaction by the court was in response to DVB's additional solicitor general P P Malhotra's attempt to shift the blame to DCP for flouting precaution while granting license to the cinema hall where the tradegy occured.

Similarly, MCD blamed DCP, DVB and the Ansals, the owners of the theatre for the mishap.

Delhi High Court had earlier directed Ansals to pay 55 percent of the compensation amount while MCD, DVB and DCP (licencing) were ordered to pay 15 percent each to the remaining 45 percent of the compensation.

The Delhi High Court also ordered a compensation of 15 lakhs to the nearest kin of those who lost their lives in the mishap and a compensation amount of 1 lakh to those injured in the tragedy.

OneIndia News