Hyderabad: The families of 24 students of a city engineering college who drowned in the Beas river in Himachal Pradesh in June 2014, will get Rs 25 lakh each as compensation from the Himachal Pradesh government, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday.
The Supreme Court was dismissing an appeal by the Himachal Pradesh government challenging an order passed on January 1, 2016 by the Himachal Pradesh High Court directing the state government and Electricity Board of Himachal to pay Rs 25 lakh compensation to each of the victim’s families.
The High Court had found the government and its electricity board guilty of negligence with regard to taking precautionary measures. The High Court observed that “had the authorities put boards, hoardings, sirens, signals and taken precautions at the relevant time, while discharging the water from the barrage/reservoir, the incident would have been avoided and the precious lives of all saved.”
The state government in its appeal before the apex court contended that there was no negligence and it cannot be foisted with the liability of paying compensation for the accident which was caused by the negligence of the students and their caretakers.
The apex court refuted the contention of the state government and directed it to pay the compensation immediately. The state government sought six months to pay the compensation amount to the families but the Supreme Court gave it only three months.
