The Supreme Court has overturned a previous decision by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) which had directed the District Magistrate of Bhagalpur to pay Rs 20 lakh in compensation to the families of the victims of a firecracker unit blast. The incident, which resulted in 15 deaths, occurred in violation of several environmental and safety regulations.
Justices Abhay Oka and N Kotiswar Singh presided over the bench that nullified the NGT’s May 27, 2022, order. The Supreme Court found that the NGT had failed to issue notices to the violators or seek responses from the families of the deceased and injured before making its compensation determination.
The case has been remanded to the NGT for reevaluation, with instructions to properly notify the Bhagalpur District Magistrate and to obtain the addresses of the victims’ families for a more thorough consideration of the matter scheduled for March 28.
The NGT’s initial ruling had recognized the operational breaches of the firecracker unit, citing non-compliance with the Manufacture, Storage and Import of Hazardous Chemical Rules, 1989, and the Explosives Rules. It had unilaterally decided on the compensation amounts based on a generic scale—Rs 20 lakh for each death and Rs 15 lakh for each injury—without detailed information on the ages and incomes of the deceased.
Additionally, the NGT had stipulated that while the compensation should be disbursed by the state official within one month to the identified heirs and injured parties, the state was entitled to recuperate this amount from the identified violators through legal means.
