The Supreme Court on Thursday appointed a one-man probe committee under its former judge SB Sinha to inquire the cause of accident and role of officials that led to the Meerut fire tragedy in 2006. The fire that occurred in a consumer electronic fair at Victoria Park, Meerut claimed 64 lives and left 126 injured.
The Court further ordered the State to pay an interim compensation of `5 lakh to each deceased’s kin and `2 lakh to those seriously injured pending submission of the Committee’s report before January 31, 2015.This is the second enquiry commission to be set up following the incident that occurred on April 10, 2006. The earlier Committee appointed by the UP Government was headed by a retired HC judge OP Garg. The victims were not satisfied by the manner of functioning of the Committee which did not allow them to cross examine witnesses who had testified before it.
The bench of Justices Dipak Misra and V Gopala Gowda found merit in the argument made by Bhushan and re-constituted the Commission giving it time till January 31, 2015 to submit findings.The Committee will deal with the cause of the tragedy, preventive steps if any, and determination of liability.Without waiting for the final outcome, the Court thought it appropriate to award an interim sum to the victims of the tragedy in addition to the ex-gratia already disbursed by State Government.
The additional amount will be deposited with the District Judge in Meerut who will then release the amount to the victims.The bench also directed the organiser of the consumer electronic fair to deposit `30 lakh as punitive damages with the Supreme Court Registry before hearing him on the maintainability of victim’s petition. The bench will take up the matter in February next year.