Kamala Mills fire figures in Supreme Court verdict

A Supreme Court (SC) verdict upholding licence required by restaurants in Bengaluru for playing "live band music" refers to the fire in restaurants in Kamla Mills compound in Mumbai last month while laying stress on strict safety measures to prevent recurrence of such tragedies.

The Bench of Justices R K Agrawal and Abhay Manohar Sapre referred to lives of several innocent people sitting in the restaurants lost due to lapses in compliance of safety measures. It also referred to a similar incident few years ago in Delhi''s Upahar Cinema due to non-observance of safety measures. "When such incidents occur, they never obliterate from the memories of the citizens and leave a message to all the stakeholders that steps for strict compliance must be taken to avoid any such recurrence in future at any place. "We hope that all the stakeholders will keep our observations (in the judgment) in mind," the Court said.

While upholding the licensing for the live band music, the Court said: "To avert any untoward incident due to breaking of fire, maybe for any reasons in the licensed premises, appropriate specific safety measures must be carried out under the guidance of teams of experts." It said these steps are in public interest and should be given precedence by the police commissioner not only at the time of granting the licence but also by doing regular inspection of th licensed premises without any lapse.