Supreme Court transfers petition by kin of Deesa fire tragedy victims to Gujarat High Court

The order of the SC states, “We have briefly heard learned Senior Counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner as well as learned Solicitor General of India appearing on behalf of the respondent —State of Gujarat. Having regard to the fact that the relief sought for the petitioner or other victims of the fire tragedy is primarily against the State of Gujarat, we deem it appropriate to transfer this Writ Petition to the Gujarat High Court. The same may be renumbered in the High Court. The counter affidavit may be filed by the respondents before the High Court within four weeks.”

The order further stated, “Keeping in view the nature of relief sought by the petitioner, we request the Hon’ble Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court to take up the matter in the first Division Bench and make an endeavour to decide the same expeditiously.”

Advocate Utkarsh Dave, who is appearing for the kin of the fire tragedy victims, on Saturday, wrote a letter to the Registry of the Gujarat HC urging that the process for listing the matter before the HC be expedited as the Diwali vacations of the court were fast approaching. Dave said, “I have already received instructions to appear for and represent the kin of the victims, that is, the original petitioner before the HC… The SC has already directed that the counter affidavits must be filed within four weeks. Since the matter is sensitive in nature and the Diwali vacations are approaching, we have requested the registry to expedite the process and permit listing of the matter before the HC… The SC order has cleared that we do not need to file a fresh petition in the HC.”

Earlier, on July 31, the SC had issued notice to the state government after admitting the petition filed by Chandar Singh Nayak, a migrant labourer from Dewas in Madhya Pradesh, who works as a labourer in Ahmedabad and had lost six members of his family in the Deesa fire tragedy. The State of Gujarat, through the Chief Secretary as well as the Home Secretary besides the Regional Fire Officer of Gandhinagar, District Collector of Banaskantha and the Sub-Divisional Magistrate of Deesa are respondents to Nayak’s petition before the SC.

On April 1, when a fire broke out in the illegal firecracker manufacturing facility, comprising six warehouses, in Deesa, Nayak lost his daughter, son-in-law and the latter’s siblings and mother in the incident. In his petition, Nayak had contended that the firecracker warehouse ran without proper licensing, sale permissions, fire safety equipment and regulatory insights.

Seeking a higher compensation of Rs 2 crore each for the families of the deceased victims and Rs 50 lakh to the injured, the petition states, “It is submitted that the Central Government and the State Governments of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh announced paltry compensation amounts of Rs 2 lakhs, Rs 4 lakhs, and Rs 2 lakhs respectively to the next of kin of the deceased persons and Rs 50,000/- each for the injured by overlooking the fact that a majority of the victims were the sole bread earners of their respective families…”

The petition seeks “directions” to the State government to “immediately locate and carry out an inspection of all firecracker manufacturing units in Gujarat in respect of compliance with applicable fire safety norms “under prevailing laws”.

Dave said that the petition seeks investigation into the role of the state government officials, who have “shown extreme administrative lethargy and even complicity despite judicial interventions”.

Dave said, “Gujarat has seen several tragedies in the past that have caused loss of lives due to negligence of authorities and repeated failure of the state officials working in the state government. Our petition is seeking that the amount of compensation should be enhanced, which can bring a life of dignity to the kin of the victims, if not closure in the matter… In the specific case of Deesa, we have sought that the investigation be conducted by officers from outside Gujarat so that the state government officers responsible for the tragedy are not given scope to escape the law…”

A total of 21 people, including seven children — all migrants from MP — had lost their lives in the tragedy. The warehouse owners are alleged to have been illegally manufacturing fireworks on the said premises without having the requisite permissions from the state authorities. An FIR was lodged in the case at Deesa Rural police station.