Mumbai: After a decade-long battle for justice, the families of those who lost their lives in a 2015 fire accident in Hotel Kinara in Kurla received a compensation of ₹50 lakh each as directed by the Bombay High Court in June this year.
The incident dates back to 16th October 2015, when Hotel City Kinara in Kurla caught fire, claiming the lives of eight college students and one corporate employee. The investigation had revealed that the hotel, where the accident occurred, did not have the necessary fire safety systems in place. It was also found that the hotel illegally served food in the loft area of a mezzanine floor. A fire incident report was filed after the incident, which stated a gas leak in the loft area as the reason for the fire. It further stated that the furniture and the switchboards soon caught fire, resulting in the mishap. “Party failed to produce valid permission from the competent Municipal authority for the authenticity of the loft/mezzanine floor,” the report mentioned. The families of the victims claimed that the owners of the hotel were under arrest for six months, after which they were set free.
On August 28, 2016, the families of the victims filed a complaint with the Lokayukta, seeking an investigation into the fire and appropriate compensation. They approached the high court after the Lokayukta dismissed their complaint on February 27, 2017, which stated that the compensation sum had already been deposited with the tehsildar, Kurla.
Following this, the families of victims filed a petition with the Bombay High Court in 2018.
The Bombay High Court held the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation responsible for not cancelling the hotel’s license as it was being operated without a no-objection certificate from the fire department.
While deciding the petitions, the court noted that there had been complaints about various breaches at the restaurant since September 2012. The BMC, which conducted several inspections, had recorded these breaches, time and again, but did not act on them.
On June 10 this year, the high court observed that the fire could have been entirely prevented if the BMC had acted on the finding that the eatery had committed several breaches of fire safety norms. It held that the “deliberate inaction and negligence” on the part of civic officials in fulfilling their duties had resulted in the fire and loss of lives. The court then directed the BMC to pay a compensation of ₹50 lakh to each of the victims within a period of 12 weeks.
“The court directed the BMC to pay a compensation of ₹50 lakh within a period of 12 weeks and also allowed the civic body to recover the amount from the hotel owners,” said Advocate Godfrey Pimenta.
On Friday, the civic body paid the compensation to all the families. One of the petitioners, Rekha Thapar, mother of Akash Thapar, 19, an engineering student of Don Bosco Institute of Technology (DBIT) who died in the incident, said, “The compensation amount is received, but the emotional strain and the loss are unbearable. We have been living with it for the last decade, and it will stay with us.”
“There are several establishments in the city which continue to run without a proper fire safety NOC and the civic body is not taking any action. Taking a lesson from the case, if the civic body keeps a strict vigilance, the businesses will follow the set regulations,” said Pimenta.
