Conclude Uphaar hearing by Aug 31: HC

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Thursday directed the trial court to commence the hearing of the Uphaar fire tragedy case on a day-to-day basis from July 2 and conclude it by August 31 this year.

A Division Bench headed by Justice Mukul Mudgal passed the direction on a petition filed by Association of Victims of Uphaar Tragedy (AVUT) seeking directions for expeditious hearing of the case.

AVUT had alleged that ten years had elapsed since the unfortunate incident occurred and eight years had gone-by since the case was committed to the Sessions court.

It further said that five years had passed since the court had fixed the deadline but the progress of the case was very slow, AVUT claimed.

The High Court, in its order dated April 4, 2002, had fixed a timeframe and directed the trial court to complete the trial by December 15, 2002.

It had also directed that trial court that it would hold trial of the case for 10 days in a month.

Alleging that the accused persons are trying to delay the trial, the application said that for a period of ten months from November 2005 to August 2006, the accused only chose to produce three defence witnesses.