Skip to main content

Supreme Court admits plea seeking compensation to 2002 Gujarat riot victims equal to victims of Muzaffarnagar

Gagan Sethi
The Supreme Court of India has admitted an appeal filed by senior human rights activist Gagan Sethi of the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), Ahmedabad, asking for further compensation and rehabilitation of the victims of the 2002 riots in Gujarat on the lines of what the court had ordered for the victims of Muzaffarpur riots in UP, which took place two years ago.A statement from the CSJ, which has been fighting for fair compensation to the Gujarat riots victims ever since the 2002 riots, says, “A bench comprising of Justice Anil R Dave and Kurien Joseph passed and orders admitting the appeal after hearing Sanjay Hegde senior advocate for the petitioner, and Tushar Mehta, additional solicitor general for the Union of India.”
Referring to the Gujarat High Court order of 2011 which said that it could not look into employment of kin of riots victims on compassionate ground as it was a policy matter, Mehta reportedly wanted the apex court to dispose of the appeal, given the passage of time, even as contending that no compassionate appointments could now be made for children of the 2002 riot victims.
Hegde, however, argued, the High Court judgment on this “was not in terms of the Supreme Court's judgment of 2004”, and that there was “continuing need for further schemes of relief.” The appeal has been put on full hearing for a later date.
Controversy around compensation to riot victims goes back to 2008, when the former UPA government announced than an ex-gratia amount of Rs 3.5 lakh or more to the kin of the victims who lost their lives during the riots – in all, 1169 people were to be paid compensation, including 59 persons who died in the train burning on February 27, 2002 at Godhra. Another Rs 1.5 lakh was to be paid to each of the 2,548 persons injured.
The announcement said, the total package of money should be equivalent to 10 times the compensation paid by the state after riots, minus the amount already paid will be paid for financial loss due to damage or loss to residential, commercial and industrial properties.
The process of distribution of this package was to be completed before October 2008. The state government had to verify the claims, distribute compensation and issue utilization certificate to the Government of India within 45 days, till December 15, 2008.
Apart from this, compassionate recruitment in government service was to be given to children/family members of deceased victims in recruitment by giving necessary age relaxations.
Finding that the Gujarat government was taking a “narrow approach” to identify riots victims, the CSJ approached the High Court, along with Antakrik Vistaphit Hak Rakshak Samiti (AVHRS), filing a Public Interest Litigation. In lieu of this petition, the Gujarat High court has passed orders at different stages for the disbursement of compensation, CSJ said.
However, in 2011, the PIL was set aside asking the state government to speed up payment of compensation, making CSJ approaching Supreme Court in 2012 saying there are still “gaps”, and a “huge chunk of the affected population” has been left unaddressed. It also said, Gujarat government was taking a “very limited scope in terms of disbursement of the compensation, in comparison to the 1984 Sikh riot, where the widows and old age persons were paid a pension at a uniform rate of Rs 2500 per month for the whole life.”
The plea to the Supreme Court wanted constitution of a committee under the ombudsman to verify the claims of compensation against the damages to property; payment of compensation to families living in rented houses who were not able to avail the due compensation, as they did not have house documents in their name; compensation to people who have had permanent disability due to injury during the riots; job to the orphaned because of the riots and now are of age; and a permanent pension to the widows of those killed during the riots.
After hearing both the sides, the apex court admitted the appeal and placed it for a full hearing on a future date. Welcoming the development, well-known human rights activist Shabnam Hashmi said, this suggests that the “fight for justice is still on despite dark times.”
Former Planning Commission member Sayeda Hameed said, “The news from the Supreme Court gives me reason to hope. Today begins the three day mourning for Hazrat Ali and Ramadan takes on added meaning. It also marks the fact that in Shahadat (literally means 'witness') is the ultimate victory. During times like these, news like this is fresh rain on parched earth.”

Comments

TRENDING

World Hijab Day? Ex-Muslim women observe Feb 1 as No Hijab Day, insist: 'Put it on a Man'

I didn't know that there could ever be a thing as World Hijab Day until I received an email alert from Maryam Namazie of the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain (CEMB), stating that several ex-Muslim women's groups had observed the same day—February 1—as No Hijab Day! According to Namazie, the day "was created on February 1 as a direct response to World Hijab Day" to "illuminate the coercive and oppressive realities of the hijab as a pillar of sex apartheid and a war on women."

Google powered AI refuses to correct grammar of a 'balanced' piece on Trump sending chained immigrants to India!

This is a continuation of my blog on how, while the start-up-developed AI app DeepSeek is being criticized for consistently rejecting content related to China or Maoism, there appears to be no mention in Western media about why another app, developed by the powerful Google, Gemini, remains silent on Indian political issues.  

How the middle classes are returning to the BJP fold, be it Delhi or Gujarat: Mahakumbh, Sitharaman's budget

Whatever reasons may be offered for the Aam Aadmi Party's defeat in Delhi—whether it was the BJP's promises of more freebies than AAP, the shedding of ultra-nationalist slogans, or the successful demolition of Arvind Kejriwal's "Mr. Clean" image—my recent interaction with a group of middle-class individuals highlighted a notable trend. Those who had just begun to sit on the fence were now once again returning to the BJP fold.

Trump’s research cuts 'may mean' advantage China: But will India leverage global brain drain to its advantage?

When I heard from a couple of NRI professionals—currently on work visas and engaged in research projects at American universities—that one of President Donald Trump's major policy thrusts was to cut federal funding to the country's top educational institutions, I was instantly reminded of what Prof. Kaushik Basu had said while delivering a lecture in Ahmedabad.

Gujarat a police state? How top High Court advocate stunned a senior-most journalist

Rajdeep Sardesai, Anand Yagnik This is a continuation of my earlier blog on well-known journalist Rajdeep Sardesai's lecture in memory of the late Achyut Yagnik at the Ahmedabad Management Association (AMA). I was a little surprised when I received the intimation about the venue for the lecture.

Why burn Manusmriti? Why not preserve it to demonstrate, display historicity of casteism?

In a significant Facebook post, Rana Singh, former associate professor of English at Patna University, has revealed something that few seem to know. Titled "The Shudras in Manusmriti", Singh says,  because Manusmriti is discussed so often, he thought of reading it himself. “This book likely dates back to the 2nd or 3rd century BCE, and the presence of contradictory statements suggests that it is not the work of a single author,” he says in his Facebook post in Hindi, written in 2022 and recently reshared.

5% poor in India? Union govt claim debunked, '26.4% of population below poverty line'

A recent paper, referring to the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) 2022-23 of the Government of India (GoI), has debunked the official claim that poverty has substantially declined. Titled "Poverty in India: The Rangarajan Method and the 2022–23 Household Consumption Expenditure Survey", the paper —authored by scholars CA Sethu, LT Abhinav Surya, and CA Ruthu—states that "more than a quarter of India’s population falls below the poverty line."

Talking of increased corporate control over news, Rajdeep Sardesai 'evades' alternative media

When I received an intimation that well-known journalist Rajdeep Sardesai was to speak at the Ahmedabad Management Association (AMA) on February 2, my instant reaction was: I know what he is going to say—his views are quite well known; he wouldn’t be saying anything new. Yet, I decided to go and listen to him to catch his mood at a time when the media, as he (and I) knew it, is changing fast due to the availability of new technological tools that were not accessible even a decade ago.

A Hindu alternative to Valentine's Day? 'Shiv-Parvati was first love marriage in Universe'

  The other day, I was searching on Google a quote on Maha Shivratri which I wanted to send to someone, a confirmed Shiv Bhakt, quite close to me -- with an underlying message to act positively instead of being negative. On top of the search, I chanced upon an article in, imagine!, a Nashik Corporation site which offered me something very unusual.  I don't know who owns this site, for there is nothing on it in the About Us link. It merely says, the Nashik Corporation  site   "is an educational and news website of the municipal corporation. Today, education and payment of tax are completely online." It goes on to add, "So we provide some of the latest information about Property Tax, Water Tax, Marriage Certificate, Caste Certificate, etc. So all taxpayer can get all information of their municipal in a single place.some facts about legal and financial issues that different city corporations face, but I was least interested in them."  Surely, this didn't intere...