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2009(4) LAW HERALD (P&H) 3220 (DB)
IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA
(DIVISION BENCH)
Before
The Hon’ble Mr. Justice T.S. Thakur, Chief Justice.
The Hon’ble Mr. Justice Kanwaljit Singh Ahluwalia.
Civil Writ Petition No. 13214 of 1996
Dabwali Fire Tragedy Victims Association
v.
Union of India & Ors.
{Decided on 09/11/2009}
(A) Dabwali Fire Tragedy--Tort--Compensation--Negligence--Report of--Inquiry Commission--Validity of--Liability of School--Tragedy took place in school function held at Marriage Palace--Claimed 446 lives and caused burn injuries to 200--Fact that school did not have enough space in its own premises to organize function did not absolve it of legal obligation to act prudently and to ensure that children, staff and parents invited to such function are safe wherever same may be held--Also, that there was no other suitable place where function could be held also did not mean that school could hold function at Marriage Palace who had no safety measures whatsoever to take care of any emergency--Commission justified in declaring that school was negligent in matter of arranging function and providing security qua those whom it owned duty to take care. (P.76 & 77)
(B) Dabwali Fire Tragedy--Tort--Compensation--Negligence--Report of--Inquiry Commission--Validity of--Liability of School--Tragedy occurred in school function held at marriage place--Claimed 446 lives and caused burn injuries to 200 persons--Liability of School--Principle of proximity creating obligation for School qua its students and invitees to function would make School liable for any negligence in either choice of venue of function or degree of care that ought to have been taken to prevent any harm coming to those who had come to watch and/or participate in event--Loose electric connections, crude lighting arrangements and an electric load heavier than what entire system was geared to take was a recipe for a human tragedy to occur--Absence of any fire extinguishing arrangements within Pandal and single exit from Pandal hardly enough for people to run out in the event of fire could have put any prudent person handling such an event to serious thought about safety of those attending function especially small children who had been brought to venue in large numbers--Commission justified in declaring that School was negligent in matter of arranging function and providing security qua those whom it owned duty to take care. (P.77)
(C) Dabwali Fire Tragedy--Tort--Compensation--Vicarious liability--Incident occurred in Annual Function of School held at marriage palace--Liability of Marriage Palace--While school had absolute right to restrict entry to venue of function being organized by it, owner of marriage palace had not completely given up their control over premises and were present at time incident occurred--Commission of inquiry justified in holding school and marriage palace liability for act of tort arising out of their negligence and duty to take care about safety of all those invited to function jointly. (P.88 & 92)
(D) Dabwali Fire Tragedy--Tort--Compensation--Fire Tragedy--Negligence--Apportionment of liability--Modification of--Varies from case to case and situation to situation--Liability to apportioned depending upon nature and extent of role played by tort-feasor in commission of fort and resultant loss to claimants--Held; That school and its agent, Marriage palace would be jointly and severally liable to pay 55% of total compensation to claimants--Remaining tort-feasor namely State of Haryana, Haryana State Electricity Board and Municipal Committee shall be liable to pay 15% each total amount--Apportionment of liability modified accordingly. (P.95)
(E) Dabwali Fire Tragedy--Tort--Compensation--Negligence--Enhancement of--Escalation in Price Index--Plea of enhancement made by claimants on basis that amount awarded on analogy of Lata Wadhwa’s case ignored escalation in price index between 1989 when incident in Lata Wadhwa’s case occurred and 1995 when present incident occurred--Held; That amount awarded in Lata Wadhwa’s case could only be guiding factor and not a benchmark for all times to come especially with an ever increasing price index and falling value of rupee--Amount awarded one man commission of inquiry accordingly enhanced in different categories. (P.99)
(F) Dabwali Fire Tragedy--Tort--Compensation--Enhancement of compensation--Interest--Interest at rate of 6% from date of filing of claim petition awarded--Interest should not be denied claimant especially when right to claim and receive amount relates back to date on which incident had taken place and awarded of interest to date on which a claim for payment of compensation filed. (P.204)
(G) Dabwali Fire Tragedy--Tort--Compensation--Calculation of--No definite co-relation between extent of burns and extent of disabilities suffered by victims--The proper course appears to be make extent of disability as solitary basis for award of compensation regardless of extent of burns suffered by victim except where disability may be less but non-pecuniary damages become awardable on account of loss of amenities such as marriage prospects for young girls and boys. (P.192)
(H) Dabwali Fire Tragedy--Tort--Compensation--Enhancement of compensation--Compensation enhanced in different categories discussed in detail.
T.S. Thakur, C.J.:- Four hundred and forty six precious lives, mostly children and women, were lost in what turned out to be the worst fire tragedy ever in this part of the Country. Besides those who died, nearly 200 suffered burn injuries, disfiguring some of them beyond recognition. Payment of compensation to those, who survived or the next of kin of those, who did not, may never heal their wounds completely nor make any material difference in the ground realities unless all those concerned do some introspection to identify the causes for such tragedies and take corrective steps to prevent their recurrence in future. That is because human tragedies of such magnitude are more often than not caused as much by lack of care and caution as by the all round failure of public authorities statutory or otherwise in the due and proper discharge of their functions and duties especially those concerning enforcement of safety measures.
2. D.A.V. Centenary Public School, Mandi Dabwali was known to be a Premier Educational Institute in District Sirsa in the State of Haryana. The school was amongst six hundred and fifty other colleges and institutions under the management of DAV College Managing Committee, Chitragupta Road, New Delhi. For an Annual Prize Distribution Function, the school appears to have chosen what was known as Rajiv Marriage Palace situated at Chautala Chowk, Mandi, Dabwali, as the venue to which the children on the rolls of the school, their parents and teachers were invited. An invitation card sent to the invitees by the Principal of the School and the Regional Director of the DAV Managing Committee announced that Shri M.P.Bidlan, IAS, Deputy Commissioner, Sirsa would be the Chief Guest and Shri S.N.Kamboj, SDM Dabwali as the Guest of Honour. The function was to start at 11.00 A.M. on the 23rd of December 1995. At about 1.40 P.M. or so, the pandal under which a very large number of invitees were sitting, appears to have caught fire. To the misfortune of those attending the function the fire spread much too fast to let them escape. The blaze claimed 446 lives apart from causing burn injuries to 200 others. The cause of death was fire and a resultant stampede inside the pandal for want of escape routes the single exit point proving to be too small to let everyone under the pandal run to safety.
3. Nearly nine months after the incident when the funeral pyres and the ill fated venue had cooled, CWP No.13214 of 1996 was filed by the petitioner-association in the interest of those affected by the tragedy claiming a number of reliefs including adequate compensation to those who had lost their near and dear ones. Several directions were issued in the said writ petition from time to time which was finally disposed of by an order dated 28/29.01.2003, whereby Justice T P Garg, a former Judge of High Court of Allahabad was appointed as a one man Commission for determining the negligence of those connected with the incident and the amount of compensation payable to the victims or their next of kin.
4. The one man Commission, pursuant to the above directions, published notices inviting claim petitions from the general public, in response whereto the victims association filed a total of 493 petitions, out of which 405 cases related to compensation in death cases while the remaining 88 cases pertained to burn injuries suffered by the claimants. Notices were also sent to nine respondents including Union of India, State of Haryana, DAV Managing Committee, Haryana State Electricity Board, Municipal Council, Mandi Dabwali and Rajiv Marriage Palace.
5. In their claim petitions, the claimants alleged that the DAV Managing Committee and the school authorities had organized the ill fated function at a Marriage Palace without taking reasonable care and caution expected of a prudent person regarding the safety of all those attending the function. The School Authorities had thereby committed an act of negligence especially when the Marriage
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