New Delhi, March 15
The Supreme Court today ordered the DAV Managing Committee to pay Rs 10 crore as interim compensation for the victims of the fire tragedy at a school function at Dabwali in Haryana on December 23, 1995. The compensation would be disbursed to the victims within six weeks by the Additional Civil Judge, Dabwali, a Bench headed by Chief Justice of India KG Balakrishnan said in its order.
Nearly 456 persons, including over 250 women, and 130 students, were killed in the fire at Rajiv Marriage Place, a banquet hall where the school was holding its annual function.
The Bench also sought the response of the Dabwali Fire Tragedy Victims’ Association to the appeal filed by DAV, challenging the November 9, 2009, judgment of the Punjab and Haryana High Court that had ordered compensation of Rs 55 crore to be shared between DAV and the Haryana
government in the ratio of 55 per cent and 45 per cent, respectively. The state government has accepted the verdict and decided not to appeal.
Arguing before the Bench, which included Justices Deepak Verma and BS Chauhan, senior counsel L Nageshwar Rao, who appeared for DAV, contended that the HC had unreasonably slapped a very high liability on the school management, ignoring the findings of the CBI and the Sirsa Divisional Commissioner. These findings were in DAV’s favour, he said.
The Bench felt that DAV, which was imparting education across the country, should have been more “careful and cautious” while choosing the place for such a large function.
Counsel Rao, however, argued that the banquet hall was the only place available in that area for holding functions of that size and that DAV could not be held responsible if authorities had allowed the hall to function without license.
Initially, the Bench asked DAV to pay half of the compensation awarded by the HC as interim relief, but subsequently reduced it to Rs 10 crore.
