A general view of the Supreme Court .
| Photo Credit: Shashi Shekhar Kashyap
The Supreme Court on Wednesday (March 5, 2025) set aside an National Green Tribunal order directing the district magistrate to pay a ₹20 lakh compensation to the kin of the persons who died in a blast at a firecrackers unit in Bhagalpur.
A Bench of Justices Abhay Oka and N. Kotiswar Singh quashed the NGT order observing neither a notice was issued to the violators nor a response was sought from the kin of those who died and suffered injuries.
The matter was sent back to the NGT for a fresh consideration on March 28.
The Bench directed the tribunal to issue notice to the Bhagalpur district magistrate and seek addresses of the kin of the dead and the injured.
The NGT in its May 27, 2022 order took cognisance of a media report on the 15 deaths during the blast, and said the firecracker unit operated in violation of environmental norms and in violation of Manufacture, Storage and Import of the Hazardous Chemical Rules, 1989 as well as the Explosive Rules.
“Even though the data about age and income of the deceased is not mentioned, applying the floor level compensation scale, we determine compensation payable to the next of the kin of the deceased @ ₹20 lakh for each death and ₹15 lakh with respect to each of the injured,” the NGT said.
The compensation was ordered to be paid by the State official within a month to the heirs of those who had died and the injured who were identified.
It will be open to the State to recover the amount from the violators, who also stand identified, following a due process of the law, it added.
Published – March 05, 2025 04:43 pm IST