SC appointed one-man commission to probe 2006 Meerut fire tragedy

The Supreme Court of India on 31 July 2014 appointed a one-member commission headed by former Justice SB Sinha (of apex court) to probe the 2006 Meerut Fire tragedy. The SC bench was headed by Justice Dipak Misra and included Justice V Gopala Gowda has asked the commission to submit its report by 31 January 2015.

Apart from this, the Court also ordered the state government of Uttar Pradesh to pay an interim compensation of five lakh and two lakh rupees to family members of the deceased and seriously injured respectively. It also has ordered to pay 75000 rupees to every person who suffered minor injuries.

In its order, the apex court has given two month time to the state government to deposit the compensation amount to the district judge of Meerut. Then the district judge can nominate an Additional District Judge, on making summary inquiry, shall pay the amount to the legal representatives and the victims within one month from the date of deposit.

This order of the apex court came on a petition of Sanjay Gupta, who lost five members of his family including three children in the accident. He moved to the apex court seeking a CBI inquiry into the incident.

About the 2006 Meerut Fire tragedy
The 2006 Meerut Fire tragedy occurred on an evening of 10 April 2006 in which around 60 people were killed. Fire spread through a consumer fair in Victoria Park in the city, allegedly after a short circuit. At the time, when the fire broke out about 2000 people was at the site of the incident. The incident also lead to stampede-like situation which ended in tragedy

After the accident the organizers of the fair were booked by the police but they failed to appear before the court and were declared as absconders.