Panel probing school fire gets 6-month extension

CHENNAI: Nearly 11 years after 94 children were charred to death in the worst ever school tragedy in Tamil Nadu, the Madras high court on Friday extended the term of a one-man commission probing the incident by six more months. The children were killed in a blaze at Sri Krishna School, which did not have adequate safety measures, in Kumbakonam in Thanjavur in central TN.
The commission itself was constituted in 2014, nearly a decade after the tragedy, after a PIL sought a comprehensive rehabilitation package including compensation and government jobs for the family members of the victims.
On Friday, the first bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice S Sivagnanam extended the term of Justice K Venkataraman committee to submit its report. The judge succeeded Justice P Shanmugam as commission head in September 2014. He was given six months to file his report.
The one-man commission had been entrusted with the task fixing the extent and percentage of negligence, and the corresponding liability, on each of the parties in respect of the fire accident that took place on July 16, 2004.
Justice Venkataraman was already holding the post of president of Puducherry State Consumer Redresser Forum, when he was asked to probe the school fire incident.
The earlier head of the commission, Justice P Shanmugam, resigned the post on health grounds.