Supreme Court - Daily Orders
Acid Survivors Saahas Foundation (Ngo) vs Union Of India on 3 December, 2025
ITEM NO.23 COURT NO.4 SECTION PIL-W
S U P R E M E C O U R T O F I N D I A
RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS
WRIT PETITION(S)(CIVIL) NO(S).1252/2023
ACID SURVIVORS SAAHAS FOUNDATION (NGO) Petitioner(s)
VERSUS
UNION OF INDIA & ORS. Respondent(s)
IA No. 120095/2025 - EXEMPTION FROM FILING O.T.
IA No. 108821/2024 - EXEMPTION FROM FILING O.T.
IA No. 87474/2024 - EXEMPTION FROM FILING O.T.
IA No. 188425/2025 - PERMISSION TO FILE ADDITIONAL
DOCUMENTS/FACTS/ANNEXURES
Date : 03-12-2025 This matter was called on for hearing today.
CORAM : HON'BLE MRS. JUSTICE B.V. NAGARATHNA
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE VIPUL M. PANCHOLI
For Petitioner(s) : Ms. Kaveeta Wadia, Sr. Adv.
Mr. Shashank Tripathi, AOR
Ms. Chhavi Jain, Adv.
Mr. Anurag Bhardwaj, Adv.
Ms. Pratima Sharma, Adv.
For Respondent(s) : Ms. Archana Pathak Dave, A.S.G.
Ms. Rajeshwari Shankar, Adv.
Mr. Amit Sharma-b, Adv.
Ms. Adya Jha, Adv.
Mr. Vijay Awana, Adv.
Mr. Arvind Kumar Sharma, AOR
Ms. Ruchira Goel, AOR
Mr. Rahul Chauhan, Adv.
Ms. Ritika Rao, Adv.
Mr. Akshat Kumar, AOR
Ms. Anubha Dhulia, Adv.
Signature Not Verified
Digitally signed by
BORRA LM VALLI
Date: 2025.12.04
Mr. Deepak Thukral, A.A.G.
16:42:15 IST
Reason:
Mr. Samar Vijay Singh, AOR
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Ms. Sabarni Som, Adv.
Mr. Saurabh Sachdeva, Adv.
Mr. Sandeep Saxena, Adv.
Mr. Gorav Arora, Adv.
Mr. Aman Dev Sharma, Adv.
Ms. Shubhangi Nasa, Adv.
Ms. Kanika, Adv.
Ms. Swati Ghildiyal, AOR
Ms. Neha Singh, Adv.
Mr. Vikramjeet Banerjee, A.S.G.
Mr. Mukesh Kumar Maroria, AOR
Ms. Sathvi Asthana, Adv.
Mr. Arun Singh, Adv.
Mr. Saurabh Pandey, Adv.
Mr. Paavan Avasthi, Adv.
Ms. Priyanka Terdal, Adv.
Mr. Shiv Mangal Sharma, A.A.G.
Ms. Shalini Singh, Adv.
Ms. Nidhi Jaswal, AOR
Mrs. Prerna Dhall, Adv.
Mr. Ambuj Swaroop, Adv.
Mr. Kapil Katare, Adv.
Ms. Rajnandani Kumari, Adv.
Ms. Minakshi Pandey, Adv.
Mr. Dhananjay Kumar Singh, Adv.
Mr. Prashant Singh, AOR
Mr. Shirin Khajuria, Sr. Adv.
Ms. Swati Tiwari, Adv.
Ms. Anindita Mitra, AOR
Mr. Aaditya Aniruddha Pande, AOR
Mr. Siddharth Dharmadhikari, Adv.
Mr. Shrirang B. Varma, Adv.
Mr. Bharat Bagla, Adv.
Mr. Sourav Singh, Adv.
Mr. Aditya Krishna, Adv.
Mr. Adarsh Dubey, Adv.
Ms. Chitransha Singh Sikarwar, Adv.
Mr. Karan Sharma, AOR
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Ms. Diksha Rai, AOR
Mr. Piyush Vyas, Adv.
Ms. Purvat Wali, Adv.
Mr. Eashwar, Adv.
Ms. Disha Singh, AOR
Ms. Eliza Barr, Adv.
Mr. Kunal Mimani, AOR
Mr. Abhinav Rana, Adv.
Ms. K. Enatoli Sema, AOR
Mr. Amit Kumar Singh, Adv.
Ms. Chubalemla Chang, Adv.
Mr. Prang Newmai, Adv.
Ms. Yanmi Phazang, Adv.
Mr. Anando Mukherjee, AOR
Mr. Avijit Mani Tripathi, AOR
Mr. T.k. Nayak, Adv.
Mr. Prakash Ranjan Nayak, AOR
Mr. Sidharth Nahar, Adv.
Mr. Somkeerti V Singhdeo, Adv.
Mr. Varinder Kumar Sharma, AOR
Mr. Pukhrambam Ramesh Kumar, AOR
Mr. Karun Sharma, Adv.
Ms. Rajkumari Divyasana, Adv.
Mr. Guntur Pramod Kumar, AOR
Ms. Prerna Singh, Adv.
Mr. Gautam Bhatia, Adv.
Mr. Dhruv Yadav, Adv.
Ms. Devina Sehgal, AOR
Mr. Yatharth Kansal, Adv.
Mr. Nishe Rajen Shonker, AOR
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Mrs. Anu K Joy, Adv.
Mr. Alim Anvar, Adv.
Mr. Santhosh K, Adv.
Mrs. Devika A.l., Adv.
Mr. Manish Kumar, AOR
Mr. Divyansh Mishra, Adv.
Mr. Kumar Saurav, Adv.
Mr. Rajesh Singh Chauhan, Adv.
Mr. Harish Pandey, Adv.
Mr. Piyush Beriwal, Adv.
Mr. Krishna Kant Dubey, Adv.
Mr. Varun Chugh, Adv.
Ms. Indira Bhakar, Adv.
Mr. Shashwat Parihar, Adv.
Mr. Santosh Ramdurg, Adv.
Mr. Shreekant Neelappa Terdal, AOR
Ms. Rashmi Nanda Kumar, AOR
UPON hearing the counsel the Court made the following
O R D E R
On the request of learned counsel for the petitioner the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) is impleaded as respondent No.38.
Amended memo of parties to be filed by petitioner’s counsel.
Ms. Rashmi Nanda Kumar, learned counsel for the NALSA is present in this Court and she has accepted notice for the impleaded respondent.
Learned counsel for the petitioner-Foundation has brought to our notice the order dated 20.03.2025. For ease of reference, the said order is extracted as under: 4
“Counter affidavit filed by the Union Territory of Chandigarh, though not a party, is taken on record.
The Union of India and some States/Union Territories have not filed their counter affidavit/reply.
Let the counter affidavit/reply be filed by all of them within four weeks from today.
List before the Registrar’s Court for
completion of pleadings/filing of
counter/rejoinder affidavit in the week commencing 05.05.2025.
The petitioner-foundation and/or the acid attack victims will be at liberty to approach the concerned State/District Legal Services Authority/Legal Services Committee in case there is any default or delay in payment of compensation to the acid attack victims.
The concerned State/District Legal Services Authority/Legal Services Committee will maintain a chart/records indicating the names and details of the victims of acid attack; the dates when the applications seeking compensation were filed on their behalf; and the dates when the compensation was actually paid. Any default or delay in payment of compensation will be brought to the notice of this Court for appropriate orders.
The concerned State/District Legal Services Authority/Legal Services Committee shall ensure that the victims of acid attack are attended to in private hospitals also. In case of any issue, they may bring it to the notice of the concerned private hospital and if required, they may 5 approach this Court for appropriate orders.
Re-list before the Court in the week
commencing 21.07.2025.”
Petitioner’s grievance is that the State/District
Legal Services Authority have not acted on this order inasmuch as compensation has not been disbursed to the victims of acid attack. Therefore, learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that it is necessary that this order is implemented in its true letter and spirit.
We request the learned counsel for NALSA to transmit today’s order to all the State Legal Service Authorities through Member Secretary, NALSA.
We direct the Member Secretaries of the State Legal Service Authorities to further transmit this order to the Member Secretaries of the District as well as Taluk Legal Services Authorities for the purpose of implementation of the victim’s compensation insofar as the victims of acid attack are concerned by bearing in mind the observations and directions issued by this Court reported in (2014) 4 SCC 427 {Laxmi vs. Union of India}.
At this stage, learned counsel for NALSA, on instructions, submitted that compensation of Rs.484 crores (approximately) has been disbursed during the period of April, 2024 to March, 2025 to the victims of acid attack and she would file a status report in this regard. 6 In response, learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that she would verify this.
Learned counsel for the respective States and the Union Territories to also bring to the notice of the respective Chief Secretaries the order passed today so as to impress upon them to issue suitable directions for the disbursement of the funds to the State Legal Services Authority for the purpose of disbursement to the victims of the acid attack.
A copy of this order shall also be brought to the notice of the Principal Secretary, Health and Family Welfare of each of the States and Union Territories so that appropriate directions are issued by the Principal Secretary of the said Department to all the Government as well as the Private Hospitals to ensure that immediate treatment is rendered to the victims of acid attacks.
Learned counsel for NALSA to file the status report with regard to the disbursement of the compensation over the years to the victims of acid attack by seeking relevant data from the Member Secretaries of the States/Union Territories of Legal Services Authorities.
List on 03.02.2026.
(B. LAKSHMI MANIKYA VALLI) (DIVYA BABBAR)
COURT MASTER (SH) COURT MASTER (NSH)
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