Punjab-Haryana High Court
Dabwali Fire Tragedy Victims ... vs Union Of India And Others on 28 January, 2011
Bench: Adarsh Kumar Goel, Kanwaljit Singh Ahluwalia
IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA
AT CHANDIGARH
Review Application No.265 of 2010 (O&M) in
Civil Writ Petition No.13214 of 1996
Date of decision: 28th January, 2011
Dabwali Fire Tragedy Victims Association
... Petitioner
Versus
Union of India and others
... Respondents
CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE ADARSH KUMAR GOEL HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE KANWALJIT SINGH AHLUWALIA
1. Whether Reporters of Local Newspapers may be allowed to see the judgment?
2. Whether to be referred to the Reporters or not?
3. Whether the judgment should be reported in the Digest? Present: Mr. P.K. Ganga, Advocate for the applicants.
Mrs. Anju Arora, Advocate and Ms. Aditi Girdhar, Advocate and Mr. Pradeep Sharma, Advocate for the petitioner.
Mr. Mahavir Sandhu, Advocate for respondent No.7. Mr. Randhir Singh, Additional Advocate General, Haryana. KANWALJIT SINGH AHLUWALIA, J Civil Misc. No.13992 of 2010 Present application has been filed under Section 5 of the Limitation Act, 1963 on behalf of Harphul Singh son of Mehar Singh, Nihal Kaur daughter of Mehar Singh, Harmel Singh and Harbaksh Singh sons of Mukand Singh seeking condonation of delay of 291 days in filing the review application.
It is stated in the application that Pritpal Kaur and her two minor daughters namely Jatinder Kaur aged 15 years and Deepinder Kaur aged 11 Review Application No.265 of 2010 (O&M) in 2 Civil Writ Petition No.13214 of 1996 years became victims of Dabwali Fire Tragedy and lost their lives. They were survived by Balkaran Singh, minor son of Pritpal Kaur, who also died on 6th March, 2001. It is pleaded that the applicants along with Chand Singh son of Mehar Singh became legal heirs of deceased Pritpal Kaur. Chand Singh filed a suit for declaration that he along with proforma defendants to the suit be declared owner in possession of the estate of Bachittar Singh. That suit was decreed and the applicants along with Chand Singh were declared as successors to the estate of Bachittar Singh in equal share. In the accompanying Review Application, it has been submitted that qua the death of Pritpal Kaur compensation was awarded, however, due to oversight compensation qua the death of her two minor daughters namely Jatinder Kaur and Deepinder Kaur has not been awarded. It is stated that qua the death of both the minor daughters of Pritipal Kaur, compensation to the tune of Rs.5,25,000/- is liable to be awarded. The applicants had earlier filed an application in this Court stating that Chand Singh son of Mehar Singh alone should not be permitted to withdraw the amount of compensation qua the death of Pritpal Kaur. On 6th August, 2010 in a connected application, i.e. Civil Misc. No.8296 of 2010 filed on behalf of Sunita Rani wife of Ashwani Kumar, liberty was granted to her to file a Review Application. It is prayed that similarly the applicants are also entitled to file Review Application and the delay in filing the same be condoned.
Respondent No.7 has filed reply to this CM application and has stated that there is an inordinate and unexplained delay in filing the application, and therefore, the same is not maintainable.
During the course of arguments it transpired that while delivering the judgment in Civil Writ Petition No.13214 of 1996 decided on 9th November, 2009, compensation qua the death of Jatinder Kaur and Deepinder Kaur could not be awarded. Thus, an error had crept in due to an oversight and the applicants had learnt about this fact at the time when the Review Application No.265 of 2010 (O&M) in 3 Civil Writ Petition No.13214 of 1996 compensation was disbursed by the trial Court. Therefore, we are of the view that in the larger interest, application for condonation of delay should be allowed and the delay in filing the Review Application ought to be condoned.
Ordered accordingly.
Review Application No.265 No.2010 Pritpal Kaur was married with Bachittar Singh son of Mehar Singh. Out of the said wedlock, three children namely Jatinder Kaur and Deepinder Kaur daughters, and Balkaran Singh son were born. Bachittar Singh died in the year 1995. Pritpal Kaur along with her two minor daughters, namely Jatinder Kaur and Deepinder Kaur, became victims of Dabhwali Fire Tragedy and lost their lives. They were survived by Balkaran Singh, minor son, who was the only legal heir of the family. Balkaran Singh also expired on 6th March, 2001. The deceased were survived by Chand Singh, Harphul Singh, Nihal Kaur and Gulab Kaur, brothers and sisters of Bachittar Singh. Gulab Kaur, during the pendency of proceedings, died and is now survived by applicants Harmel Singh and Harbaksh Singh. After the death of the entire family of Bachittar Singh, Chand Singh filed a suit for declaration. As per the civil Court judgment (Annexure A-1), Chand Singh and the present applicants have been declared to be the owners in possession of the suit property in equal share, which vested in Bachittar Singh. Compensation has been awarded qua the death of Pritpal Kaur, which the applicants claim that along with Chand Singh they are also entitled to disbursement in equal share. A further grievance has been made that in the fire, Jatinder Kaur aged 15 years and Deepinder Kaur aged 11 years, daughters of Pritpal Kaur, also died and due to an oversight this Court had not awarded any compensation qua them.
In Civil Writ Petition No.13214 of 1996, the Court had formulated category 2 cases as under:
Review Application No.265 of 2010 (O&M) in 4
Civil Writ Petition No.13214 of 1996 "In the case of children in the age group of 10 to 15 years, numbering in all 38, the Commission relying upon the decisions referred to earlier, awarded a sum of Rs.4,10,000/- per child killed in the incident and apportioned the same between the parents/legal representatives of the deceased."
The claimants qua category 2 cases sought enhancement to the tune of Rs.7,33,684/- based on the Consumer Price Index. While disposing of the above said writ petition qua category 2 cases, it was ordered that the compensation to the tune of Rs.5,25,000/- qua each child died during the fire shall be adequate and the same was awarded. This fact is not denied that Jatinder Kaur and Deepinder Kaur died during the fire. A perusal of the Final Report submitted by the Dabwali Fire Tragedy Victims' Compensation Commission, Hissar (hereinafter referred to as, 'the Commission) reveals that qua the death of Jatinder Kaur, a Claim Petition bearing No.466-DFT was instituted whereas, qua the death of Deepinder Kaur, Claim Petition No.467-DFT was instituted. The Commission had treated the case of Jatinder Kaur to be falling within the category of children between the age of 10 to 15 years whereas, the case of Deepinder Kaur had been treated as falling within the category of children within the age group of 16 to 22 years.
For ready reference, it can be noted that the name of Jatinder Kaur finds mention at page 183 bearing Entry No.35 whereas, the name of Deepinder Kaur has been noticed by the Commission at page 185 bearing Entry No.20 of Part I-A of its Final Report.
This Court, in its judgment rendered in Civil Writ Petition No.13214 of 1996 on 9th November, 2009 has categorized the cases of children between the age group of 10 to 15 years as Category-2 cases whereas, the cases of those falling within the age group of 16 to 22 years have been assigned Category-3. The Commission had awarded a sum of Rs.4,10,000/- per child killed in the incident, falling in Category-2 cases Review Application No.265 of 2010 (O&M) in 5 Civil Writ Petition No.13214 of 1996 whereas, children falling in Category-3 cases were awarded Rs.5,00,000/- each by the Commission. This Court had, however, enhanced the compensation to be awarded to the children falling in Category-2 cases to Rs.5,25,000/- each and qua Category-3 cases to Rs.6,35,000/- each. Accordingly, we hold that the legal representatives of Jatinder Kaur and Deepinder Kaur shall be entitled to the enhanced compensation at the rate of Rs.5,25,000/- qua the death of Jatinder Kaur and Rs.6,35,000/- qua the death of Deepinder Kaur.
With the observations made above, present review application is disposed of.
Civil Misc. No.10241 of 2010
We dispose of this application by directing the Executing Court to decide the objections (Annexure A-2) and distribute the amount of compensation to the legal heirs of Pritpal Kaur, Jatinder Kaur and Deepinder Kaur in accordance with the provisions of law.
[ADARSH KUMAR GOEL] [KANWALJIT SINGH AHLUWALIA]
JUDGE JUDGE
January 28, 2011
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