On June 13, 1997, fire had broken out at the Uphaar movie hall during the screening of a film.
The Supreme Court will decide today whether to reconsider its November 2015 judgment, imposing a hefty fine payable within three months or a two-year jail term to Ansal brothers in the 1997 Uphaar tragedy, in which 59 people died during a fire at the cinema hall in posh South Delhi.
In November 2015, the court had asked Sushil and Gopal Ansal, the owners of the Uphaar cinema hall, to pay a fine of Rs 30 crore each. The court had accepted their argument that a jail term will be too harsh for them in view of their age and the fact that they had already served their sentence partially. While Sushil Ansal had spent over five months in prison, Gopal Ansal was in jail for over four months.
Both have already paid the fine.
But the Central Bureau of Investigation, which was investigating the case and the Association of Victims of Uphaar Tragedy, had petitioned the Supreme Court to review the verdict.
In its review plea, the association said the top court judgment had showed an "unwarranted leniency" on the men, whose conviction had been "upheld by all courts, including this court". Their sentences, the petition said, had been substituted with fine "without assigning any reason".
The petition also added that their sentences were "reduced to the period undergone without taking into account the gravity of their offence."
The victims' group contended that the penalty was too little too late for the builders who had broken basic safety laws - exit doors, for example, were blocked to accommodate more seats than allowed - and have filed a petition to have the verdict reviewed.
On June 13, 1997, during the screening of Hindi film Border, fire had broken out at the movie hall. Trapped in the balcony of the theatre, 59 people had died of asphyxia. More than 100 people were injured in the subsequent stampede.