New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted an interim relief of Rs 5.14 crore to people who were injured or lost their relatives in the Uphaar Cinema Hall fire in which 59 died and 103 were injured in New Delhi in June 1997.
The court passed the direction while recording an undertaking from the Union Home Ministry, which offered to pay an ex-gratia of Rs 2.14 crore as its interim contribution. The Ansal family, which owns the cinema hall, agreed to pay Rs 3 crore as its immediate share.
The interim relief would be without any prejudice to the final compensation that would be awarded by the apex court, which on Wednesday reserved its judgement on the quantum of and recommendations to be made to the government to prevent recurrence of such incidents.
A bench of Justices R V Raveendran and K S Radhakrishnan, however, rejected the offer of another Rs one crore by the Ansals as its contribution to the Trauma Centre of the All India Institute of Medical Science.
"We may agree with your offer of Rs three crore to the victims but we do not agree with your Rs one crore offer for the Trauma Centre as it appears that you want to evoke this court's sympathy for you," the bench told senior counsel A K Ganguly appearing for the Ansals.
The Ansal's offer of a total Rs four crore by way of interim measure was also rebuffed by the Association of Victims of Upahaar Tragedy (AVUT) whose senior counsel retorted "we do not want charity. Let them not intimidate the witnessses and tamper with court records."
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