Uphaar fire tragedy: SC agrees to hear ex-IPS officer appeal

The Supreme Court today agreed to hear an appeal filed by ex-IPS officer challenging a Delhi High Court order which had rejected his plea that he cannot be tried in the 1997 Uphaar fire tragedy case because the CBI had failed to procure sanction to prosecute him.
A bench of justices Adarsh Kumar Goel and S Abdul Nazeer admitted Amod Kanth's appeal in which he has contended that he could not be tried for allegedly allowing extra seats in the cinema hall as sanction to prosecute him was not procured by the Central Bureau Investigation.
Kanth, as DCP (Licensing), had allegedly allowed retention of 37 extra seats in Uphaar cinema in 1979 leading to the closure of the gangway.

The former officer moved the apex court against the order of the Delhi High Court which had refused to quash the summons issued to him by a trial court here.
He had challenged the 2010 trial court order summoning him for allowing extra seats in Uphaar cinema hall where 59 movie-watchers had died in a blaze in 1997.
His counsel had earlier contended that the high court did not appreciate the plea that CBI failed to take sanction to prosecute him.

The apex court had on November 29, 2013 stayed the trial court proceedings against Kanth in the case and had asked the CBI to file its response to the petition.

The high court, while dismissing his argument, had said that the lower court can consider his objection if raised by him during the trial.
It had also rejected Kanth's argument that the trial judge was wrong in rejecting CBI's closure report giving a clean chit to him.
While rejecting CBI's closure report, the trial judge had on August 12, 2010 summoned Kanth, saying, "The investigation report of CBI is hereby rejected. Let the summons be issued against Amod Kanth.