An appeal for a review of the Uphaar Cinema tragedy judgement came up in front of a Supreme Court bench on February 28. It was mentioned by the counsel for the defendants, Ram Jethmalani.
Hearing Jethmalani’s plea, asking for a review of a review, the Chief Justice of India JS Khehar asked: “What do you want? Reduction in fine or reduction of sentence? You will have to wait for the hearing. We cannot grant you any relief right now. We can post it for Friday subject to no objection in registry.”
Jethmalani replied: “We are seeking reduction in sentence.”
To which the CJI replied: “We will see if the same bench is available then it will be posted there.”
Hence it was clear that the defendants had filed a review petition.
This follows a review petition filed by the victims. Now the accused have filed a review petition. The situation isn’t clear, and the issue of maintainability will arise.
It may be recalled that in the Uphaar Cinema fire on Friday, 13 June 1997, 59 people trapped inside died, mostly due to suffocation. That apart, 103 were seriously injured from the ensuing stampede.
In the landmark civil compensation case filed by the families of the deceased—who formed the Association of Victims of Uphaar Fire Tragedy (AVUT)—AVUT won Rs 25 crore compensation. Later, the Supreme Court nearly halved the sum of compensation awarded to them by the Delhi High Court. It also slashed punitive damages to be paid by the Ansal brothers (cinema owners) from Rs 2.5 crore Rs 25 lakh.
Then, in 2015, the apex court modified its order and handed out two year’s rigorous imprisonment to the Ansal brothers if they failed to pay Rs 30 crore each within three months. This year, the apex court again changed its order and sent Gopal Ansal to one year jail, while Sushil Ansal was spared considering his old age.
—India Legal Bureau