( 1 ) THIS is a writ petition whereby the petitioner, awidow of a riot victim, seeks enhancement of the amount of compensation of Rs. 20,000. 00 awarded to her on account of the death of her husband.

( 2 ) SHRI Narain Singh, petitioner s husband, lost his life on November 1, 1984, in the riots which took place after the assassination of Smt. Indira Gandhi. On the fateful day he was travelling by Bombay-Ferozepur Janta Express Train. According to the FIR No. 355 dated November 1, 1984, lodged at the Police Station New Delhi Railway Station around 12. 30 Noon, the train slopped at Tughlakabad Railway Station where 300-350 villagers surrounded it. They pulled out 25/26 Sikh passengers from the train and killed them. The persons killed included Narain Singh son of Jawahar Singh, resident of Village Bhalajala, Tehsil Taran Taran, District Amritsar, Punjab (for particulars see death certificate at page 6 of the writ record ).

( 3 ) ON October 20, 1986, after about two years of the incident, the Delhi Administration awoke to the need to compensate the petitioner for her loss and made an ex gratia payment of Rs. 20,000. 00 to her by means of a cheque, a copy whereof is at page 11 of the writ record. The grievance of the petitioner is that the amount paid to her is too meagre and the same should be enhanced to Rs. 2 lakhs. The petitioner in support of her plea about the inadequacy of the compensation has averred that heirs of the persons killed by militants or the police have been paid Rs. 2 lakhs each as compensation. She also cites the example of victims of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy.

( 4 ) THE short question involved in the writ petitionis whether an ex gratia payment of Rs. 20,000. 00 paid to a widow or family of a person killed during riots would be in consonance with Article 21 of the Constitution. I have heard Mr. Adarsh Goel, learned counsel appearing for the Govt. of National Capital Territory of Delhi, and Mr. Madan Lokur, learned counsel for the Union of India.

( 5 ) THIS case demonstrates how innocent lives were snuffed out by barbaric mobs indulging in an orgy of violence after the brutal killing of Smt. Indira Gandhi. It is not difficult to visualise the terror, pain and the suffering which must have struck the affected people not at the hands of beasts but fellow beings belonging to the same mother land to which the dead belonged. Bemoaning the loss of the near ones, how they would have preferred TO beast to human beings for company and must have yearned for a place free of marauding crowds - yearned for a place where fear would not enter yearned for a situation described in the following words of Gurudev Rabindra Nath Tagore :-

"if I were the soil, if I were the water, If I were the grass or fruit or flower, If I were to roam about the earth with beasts and birds, there would be nothing to fear, In never-ending lies wherever I go, it will be the limitless me. "

( 6 ) COMMUNAL violence and riots keep on manifesting with alarming frequency. It is the State s obligation to create conditions where rights of individuals or group of persons under Article 21 arc not and cannot be violated. It is for the State and its functionaries to evolve methods and strategics to ensure protection of life and liberty of a person or persons which is guaranteed by Article 21. It is obvious that there will be no use of the rights conferred by Article 21 if the State does not exact compliance of the same from its officials and functionaries and private persons. Votaries of violence may strike for different reasons but each lime it results in negation of Article 21. Life and liberty is being threatened at the hands of anti-national and anti-social elements, caste champions, criminals and rapists, etc. In some parts of the country terrorists and religious zealots are destroying life in the name of religion. The way a person wants to worship his God should not be a matter for hale or contempt of an individual, jeopardising and threateni