The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday admitted a petition by AMRI Hospitals Pvt Ltd seeking West Bengal government's intervention in disbursing compensation – to the amount of Rs 5 lakh each – to the families of over 90 persons, mostly patients, who died in a tragic fire at its Kolkata hospital on December 9.

While Justice Jayanta Biswas did not pass any interim order, it has directed the State government and Kolkata Police Chief (city police commissioner) to file an affidavit stating their stand on the issue within three weeks.

Counsel for the petitioner, Mr Samaraditya Pal, argued that the city police commissioner be directed to disburse the compensation (declared by AMRI Hospitals) to victims' families. Already family members of the 27 victims had approached the hospital to get the compensation amount but it became difficult to ascertain the identities of the heirs, Mr Pal said.

According to AMRI's petition, the hospital wanted to pay compensation of Rs 5 lakh each to the kin of victims through the police commissioner as it did not have the wherewithal to identify legal heirs. AMRI also claimed that it had written four letters in this regard to the city police commissioner and these were not responded to.

Meanwhile, Mr Kalyan Bandopadhyay, appearing for the State government opposed the petition stating that such acceptance of money from AMRI was not possible as there were no law in this regard. He, however, stated that the State government would abide by the order of the court.

abhishek.l@

thehindu.co.in

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