Uphaar fire: SC to set up bench for hearing review pleas

The Supreme Court today assured the victims' association of 1997 Uphaar fire tragedy that it would soon set up a bench to hear the pleas seeking review of its 2015 verdict, under which real estate barons Sushil and Gopal Ansal were required to serve two years jail term, if they failed to pay Rs 30 crore each as fine in the matter.

The matter was mentioned before a bench headed by Chief Justice T S Thakur who said a new bench would be constituted to hear the review petitions filed by the CBI and Association of Victims of Uphaar Tragedy (AVUT).

Senior advocate KTS Tulsi, who appeared for AVUT, told the bench also comprising Justices D Y Chandrachud and L Nageswara Rao that the matter was pending since January this year.

AVUT requested the court to list the matter for hearing before the bench, which would be constituted, before the winter vacation of the apex court starting mid-December.

Earlier this year, a bench headed by Justice A R Dave had decided to hear in open court the petitions filed by the CBI and AVUT seeking review of the 2015 verdict. Following the judgement, the Ansals had deposited the amount.

However, Justice Dave, who headed the three-judge bench which had heard the matters in the Uphaar case, retired on November 18.

59 people had died of asphyxia when a fire broke out during the screening of Bollywood movie 'Border' in Uphaar theatre in Green Park area of South Delhi on June 13, 1997. Over 100 were also injured in the subsequent stampede.

In its review plea AVUT had said the apex court judgements "bestow an unwarranted leniency on convicts whose conviction in the most heinous of offences has been upheld by all courts including this court and sentences imposed on them have been substituted with fine without assigning any reason or basis."

"The sentences of the convicts have been reduced to the period undergone without taking into account the gravity of their offence," it had said.

The CBI, in its review plea, had said the apex court did not give it time to put its views forth which has resulted in "miscarriage of justice".

The agency has said, "Due to the paucity of time on the day on which this case was heard, the prosecution could not adequately put across the reasons why this court should not substitute a monetary fine in place of a jail sentence.

"This petition also seeks to raise issue of an apparent error of law in the judgement and order of this court which has occasioned a grave miscarriage of justice," it said.

CBI had also claimed that "callousness" of Ansal brothers led to 59 people being trapped and suffocated to death in the theatre.

The apex court had, on August 19, 2015 sent Ansal brothers to two-year rigorous jail term if they failed to pay Rs 30 crore each within three months.

In a judgement on September 23, 2015, the bench had said the "magnitude" of the case "calls for a higher sentence" but the court has to limit itself to the choice available under the law.

Earlier, a two-judge bench of justices T S Thakur and Gyan Sudha Misra (since retired) had in a March 5, 2014 order differed on the quantum of sentence for Ansal brothers -- Sushil, 76, and Gopal, 67.

While Justice Thakur had retained the one-year jail term awarded by Delhi High Court in 2008, Justice Misra had awarded the maximum punishment of two years with a rider that it can be reduced to the period already undergone behind bars on payment of Rs 100 crore as fine collectively by them.

After this, the matter was referred to a three-judge bench headed by Justice Dave (since retired) which enhanced the sentence to the maximum period of two years under section 304-A (causing death by negligence) of IPC if they failed to pay the fine amount.

While Sushil has spent over five months in prison, Gopal was in jail for over four months soon after the accident.

The three-judge bench had also said that on the principle of parity, the case of Gopal will stand on the same footing as that of Sushil.