SC rejects curative plea by relatives of Uphaar fire victims

NEW DELHI: A 23-year-old legal battle over the 1997 fire at New Delhi’s Uphaar cinema that killed 59 people has come to an end, with the Supreme Court rejecting a curative petition seeking enhanced punishment for owners of the theatre, brothers Sushil and Gopal Ansal.The ruling was delivered on February 13, but the order was uploaded on the court website only this week.

In 2015, the top court fined the brothers ~30 crore each and reduced their imprisonment to the duration they had already spent in prison, on payment of the fine. It modified Gopal Ansal’s sentence in 2017, ordering him to serve the remaining period of the one-year imprisonment handed to him by the Delhi high court. Sushil Ansal, the court ruled in 2017 citing his advanced age, needn’t spend time beyond the nine months he had already served in jail.

The concept of the curative petition is based on a 2002 case, Rupa Ashok Hurra vs. Ashok Hurra & Another, which laid down the parameters for the Supreme Court to reconsider its own orders after dismissing a review petition, to prevent abuse of processes and remedy potential miscarriage of justice.

“In our opinion, no case is made out within the parameters indicated in the decision of this Court in Rupa Ashok Hurra vs. Ashok Hurra & Another, reported in 2002 (4) SCC 388. Hence, the Curative Petitions are dismissed,” a bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) SA Bobde ruled, dismissing the curative petition.

The petition was filed by the Association of Victims of the Uphaar Tragedy (AVUT), comprising families of those who died in the fire that broke out in the cinema on June 13, 1997, killing 59 people including 23 children who were watching the period war drama, Border.

Neelam Krishnamoorthy, who founded AVUT, said that she is “shattered” by the ruling.

“As parents seeking justice for the killing of their children, we can now say with certainty that, in India, justice is a luxury accessible only to the rich and powerful,” Krishnamoorthy, who lost her 17-year-old daughter and 13-year-old son in the blaze, said. “We waited for a quarter century but justice was denied to the Uphaar victims.”

The fire was investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the accused, including Sushil and Gopal Ansal, were charged with offences under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), section 304 A (causing death by negligent act), section 337 (hurt) and section 338 (grievous hurt).

The trial court, in November 2007, convicted 12 accused including Sushil and Gopal Ansal. The Ansal brothers were found guilty of offences under sections 304A, 337 and 338 of the IPC and were sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for two years and pay a fine of ~5,000.

The Delhi HC, in December 2008, upheld their conviction, but reduced the sentence from imprisonment for two years to one year.

The SC, in March 2014, upheld the convictions. But the judges on the bench differed with respect to the sentence to be awarded to the brothers.

Another case relating to tampering with evidence in the Uphaar fire is pending against the Ansal brothers in the trial court.