HC dismisses PIL challenging decision to grant compensation to Delhi violence victims

High Court on Wednesday dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) challenging the announcement made by the Delhi Government to grant compensation to the victims of the violence in its North-East district.

A division bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice C Hari Shankar said that it is a policy decision and refused to interfere with the government's decision.

The court was hearing a petition, filed by BJP leader Nand Kishore Garg through advocate Shashank Deo, which stated that the perpetrator of the riots must be denied compensation and must not be treated as victims.

The petition sought directions to strike down the order of compensation to all riot victims as being unreasonable and arbitrary and said that it is emphatically underlined that the perpetrator of the riots must be denied the compensation and they must not be treated as victims.

He prayed to issue directions to re-notify the fresh announcement and notification by incorporating mandatory conditions of identification of the real victims of riots before releasing the compensation amount.

The petition sought regulation of ex-gratia compensation amount which should be proportionate to the loss of life and social standing to deceased and direction to restore, rehabilitate, re-construction of damaged educational institution and religious places irrespective of the communities in time-bound manner, so that forthcoming academic session may not be hampered on account of recent unfortunate incidents of Delhi.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had last week announced a compensation of Rs 10 lakh each to the families of those who lost their lives, Rs 5 lakh each to the families of the minors who died in the Delhi violence.