CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has ordered notice to the authorities concerned on a writ plea to pay adequate compensation to each of the families of the 17 victims, who died in a major fire in an oil mill in Namakkal district on May 6, 2009.
Vacation bench comprising Justice V Dhanapalan and Justice MM Sundresh ordered the notice returnable in two weeks, while admitting a public interest writ plea from advocate P Udhayakumar of Erumapatti. The petitioner sought for a direction to local police to investigate the case and prosecute the management of Vaigai MPR Agro Industries Private Limited in Valayapatti, where the fire mishap took place.
According to the petitioner, the deputy secretary of Namakkal branch of Human Rights Protection Council, the victims belonged to other states and were without any financial support and hence, their relatives were unable to approach the court.
He contended that in all the three boilers in the mill, the coolant system was not functioning for quite sometime. The 100-odd employees were paid very low wages. Their safety was not a matter of concern for the employer. Of the 17 victims, five were minors.
Post-mortem was also not conducted and now the bodies were in the mortuary in the Government Hospital, Namakkal. As per the law and on humanitarian grounds, the officials were duty bound to handover the bodies to their relatives. As this was not done, the petitioner made a representation to the officials concerned on May 12.
The local inspector of factories should be held responsible for the mishap. It was the primary default of the inspector, an instrumentality of the State, that had resulted in such an accident. Hence, the State was liable to pay compensation. The petitioner prayed for an interim compensation of Rs 1 lakh to each of the families and a direction to authorities concerned to handover the bodies.