SC rejects curative plea by relatives of Uphaar fire victims

Demand for enhanced punishment turned down

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 high court, in December 2008, upheld their conviction, but reduced the sentence from imprisonment for two years to one year. The Supreme Court, in March 2014, upheld the convictions. But the judges on the bench differed with respect to the sentence to be awarded to the brothers.

While justice TS Thakur upheld rigorous imprisonment of one year which had been imposed by the high court, justice Gyan Sudha Misra, who was the other judge on the bench, said the sentence needs to be enhanced to two-year imprisonment. Interestingly, justice Misra said the Ansal brothers could pay ~50 crore to escape an enhanced sentence.

Given the difference of opinion on the sentence, the matter went before a three-judge bench which agreed with the view taken by justice Misra and ordered in 2015 that the Ansal brothers pay ~30 crore each. In the event of such payment, the sentence would be reduced to the period already spent by them in prison, the court had held.

“We, therefore, direct that a fine of ~30 crore on each appellant should be imposed and if the said fine is paid within a period of three months, the sentence of the appellants be reduced to the sentence already undergone,” the 2015 order said.

The sentence of Gopal Ansal was, however, partially modified by the apex court in 2017 after a review petition was filed by the AVUT. The court, in its 2017 order, said Gopal Ansal should serve the remaining period of the one-year imprisonment handed to him by the Delhi high court.

The fire at the Uphaar cinema started because of a faulty transformer installed and maintained on the premises by the Delhi Vidyut Board.