Supreme Court (PHOTO: SNS)
The Supreme Court on Friday refused to grant any immediate relief to real estate baron Gopal Ansal and said it would order listing of his appeal on 6 March in the Uphaar fire tragedy case.
The apex court had asked Gopal to surrender to serve the remaining prison term. He was in jail earlier for around four-and-a-half months.
Gopal, who was asked to serve a one-year jail term, has sought relief on the ground of parity with his elder brother Sushil Ansal in the case of the 1997 fire tragedy, in which 59 people were killed.
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"You file an appeal. It will be listed if there is no objection," a bench headed by Chief Justice JS Khehar said, when senior advocate Ram Jethmalani, appearing for Gopal Ansal, submitted that the apex court registry did not take his plea on record.
Jethmalani also sought a relief that Gopal be granted liberty not to surrender till the hearing of his appeal. "It cannot be extended. We can't say that he does not need to surrender in the mean time," the bench, which also comprised Justices DY Chandrachud and SK Kaul, said.
A bench, in a 2:1 majority verdict on 9 February, had granted relief to 76-year-old Sushil considering his "advanced age-related complications" by awarding him the jail term already undergone and had asked younger sibling Gopal to surrender in four weeks to serve remaining one-year jail term in the 20-year-old case.
Senior advocate KTS Tulsi, appearing for the Association for Victims of Uphaar Tragedy (AVUT) led by Neelam Krishnamoorthy, had opposed the plea, saying the review pleas of the CBI and the association have already been decided and "there cannot be a review of the review judgement".
In June 1997, 59 persons had died of asphyxia in the Uphaar cinema during the screening of Hindi movie Border.
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