HC asks government to pay compensation to victims of 2011 Mumbai bomb blasts

The court ordered that the Collector be authorised by the state within two weeks to make such payment to the relatives of four victims who hailed from Thane district and further asked the Collector to ensure that the compensation was paid to the families of the victims within a month.

Hearing a petition, the bench headed by Justice Abhay Oka also asked the government to ensure that others in similar cases -- who had not got such compensation -- were immediately paid the amount due to them.

A series of coordinated explosions had occurred in areas of Opera Bazaar, Zaveri Bazaar and Dadar West in 2011 in which 26 persons were killed and 130 injured.

The court was hearing a petition filed by Prakash Seth, a jeweller in Zaveri Bazaar, who pleaded that the kins of four persons from Thane district who were killed in the explosions may be given the compensation as soon as possible.

The Centre generally gives Rs three lakhs compensation to the families of the victims who are killed in the blasts. It informs the concerned state government to make such payment and the latter in turn authorises the Collector to pay the compensation.

In this case, the Collector of Thane said that he was not yet authorised by the state to pay the compensation and therefore such payment could not be made by his office to the kin of the victims of the July 13 bomb blasts.

The court also asked the state to find out whether there were other blast cases in which compensation was not paid because the local authorities were not authorised by the state administration. It further directed that in such cases, the Collectors should be immediately authorised to pay the amounts to the families of the deceased.