CHENNAI: The Madras High Court directed the State government to pay Rs 5 lakh as interim solatium to the families of the 32 people who died in a fire accident at a cracker shop 14 years ago.
The court also asked the government to set up a one-man commission to decide on the final compensation.
The instructions were issued by a division bench comprising Justice D Krishnakumar and Justice PB Balaji, which was hearing an appeal filed by shop owner V Anandakumar, who sought a direction to set aside the July 2017 order directing him to bear 50 per cent of the compensation for the victims.
After the hearing, the bench asked the government to constitute a one-man commission chaired by retired High Court judge V Parthiban to decide the reasonable compensation to the 32 victims. The commission should submit the final report within six months.
As an interim measure till then, the State government should pay Rs 5 lakh to the families of the victims from the Chief Minister relief fund within 12 weeks, the bench added.
Noting that Rs 1 lakh was already granted, the court asked the government to pay Rs 4 lakh to the families of the five victims from Tamil Nadu and Rs 3 lakh to the remaining 27 victims hailing from Andhra Pradesh.
The tragedy happened on the eve of Deepavali festival in 2009 when a fire broke out at a cracker shop owned by Anandakumar in Pallipattu, Tiruvallur. The fire left 32 dead, including 27 from neighbouring Andhra Pradesh.
While the Tamil Nadu government paid Rs 1 lakh to all the families, the Andhra government gave an equal amount to those hailing from the State.
Claiming that the compensation was not adequate, the victims’ families moved the High Court seeking a direction to grant them Rs 25 lakh each.
While disposing of the petition, the court said there was contributory negligence on the part of the shop owner and said the government Anandakumar should equally share the amount given as adequate compensation.
Aggrieved by this order, Anandakumar filed the appeal seeking direction to set aside the earlier order.