1992-93 riots | SC asks Maharashtra govt if legal heirs of 168 missing persons were paid compensation

A bench headed by Justice S. K. Kaul said it requires information on whether any compensation was paid for the loss of property, when was the compensation paid and the time lag between the date of incident and payment of compensation

The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Maharashtra government to apprise it about whether compensation has been paid to the legal heirs of 168 people, who were stated to have gone missing during the 1992-93 communal riots in Mumbai.

The apex court also asked the state government whether these 168 people were among the around 900 identified victims of the riots.

A bench headed by Justice S. K. Kaul said it requires information on whether any compensation was paid for the loss of property, when was the compensation paid and the time lag between the date of incident and payment of compensation.

"We would require information on: (a) Whether the figure of 168 persons, who are stated to be missing, was a part of the 900 number of victims identified. (b) Whether any compensation has been paid to the legal heirs of the persons who have been found missing," said the bench, also comprising Justices A. S. Oka and Vikram Nath.

The top court, which reserved its verdict on a plea raising issues including that of payment of compensation to the victims of the 1992-93 riots, asked the state government to file within two weeks an affidavit giving details of the information sought by the bench.

The bench told the counsel appearing for the state that broadly, three issues have been raised by the petitioner's advocate.

It said one of the issues argued before it is that the legal service authority or the legal service system must come to the aid of people who have borne the brunt of social incidents which are criminal in nature.