The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear a PIL seeking a court-monitored probe into the fire tragedy in submarine INS Sindhuratna and a compensation of Rs 1 crore each to the relatives of the two Navy officers who died in the incident.
A Bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam, before whom the matter was mentioned for an urgent hearing, posted the case to March 28.
The PIL claimed the officers died allegedly due to technical and maintenance failure of batteries in the submarine.
The petitioner has sought a court-monitored probe to ascertain whether there was timely provision for batteries and other safety equipment.
The Public Interest Litigation which was filed by advocates Subrata Das and N Rajaraman also sought a direction for producing the communication between the Defence Ministry and the Navy Command relating to the maintenance of submarines, particularly Sindhuratna. Seven sailors were also injured when fire erupted on board Sindhuratna around 40 nautical miles off Mumbai on February 26. Taking moral responsibility, Navy Chief Admiral D K Joshi had resigned.
The Navy had said that human miscalculation led to the fire that broke out on cables on Sindhuratna. The probe had mentioned a deviation from standard operating procedure.