May attach govt officials’ properties to pay compensation to Birch victims: HC

Panaji: The Bombay high court said on Tuesday that it would consider attaching the assets of those responsible for the Birch by Romeo Lane fire tragedy — including govt functionaries — and auctioning them to pay compensation to the families of victims.

“The time has come when a loud and clear message should go out that whoever is thriving on shady businesses should get ready to pay...,” stated a division bench comprising justices Suman Shyam and Amit Jamsandekar.

The bench observed that there are various statutory bodies enjoined with certain duties of maintaining law and order, etc, in these locations. It said that these are the responsibility of govt.

“We are not going to get into it," the court said.

However, the bench said it would step in "where we find there is deliberate negligence and dereliction of duty leading to loss of human lives".

“One has to see how it happened and fix responsibility. Apart from that, except for putting them behind bars, we will even consider attaching their properties and putting them to auction sale,” the bench added.

Apart from this, the state will be at liberty to take action, the judges said.

During the hearing, advocate general Devidas Pangam told the court that 25 people died in the fire and that the PIL before the court seeks that compensation be paid to them.

He said that the Birch owners, who were made parties in the suo motu petition and are presently in custody, should be the ones responsible to pay this compensation. He added that the victims were labourers whose families do not have the means and resources.

The court asked him what would be reasonable compensation, to which Pangam replied that there is a formula prescribed by the Supreme Court, which he would place before the bench.

Advocate Rohit Bras de Sa, amicus curiae in the petition, then told the court that money should also be equally recovered from the sarpanch of the Arpora-Nagoa panchayat, who granted NOCs contrary to law without any occupancy certificate or permissions, as he has also amassed a lot of wealth. “Only when they are made to pay will a message go out loud and clear, and they will take their jobs seriously,” he said.

It was then that the bench said that the HC would direct attachment of properties of any official who is found complicit.
Pangam said that all coastal panchayats were also made parties in the petition to establish their duties, as there is a “serious problem” in the coastal belt. But the high court said it does not want to mix up issues.

Last month, the high court issued notices to 52 parties, including all coastal panchayats and municipal bodies, over illegalities by commercial establishments, basically functioning without obtaining statutory provisions.