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Supreme Court criticises former CJI for delay in arbitration

The Supreme Court has severely criticised former Chief Justice Y V Chandrachud for not being able to give an interim award seven years after he was appointed to decide the claims of 60 people who died in a massive fire that marred the 150th birth anniversary celebrations of Jamshetji Tata in 1989 at the Tata Iron and Steel Company in Jamshedpur.

The apex court had on December 15, 1993, appointed Justice Chandrachud as the arbitrator to analyse and expeditiously decide the claims of the legal heirs of the 60 dead and 111 injured.

A bench comprising Justices G B Patnaik and U C Banerjee, during the hearing of the case last week, said, "We are shocked by the way the arbitration proceedings have gone on for seven years without even an interim award being given."

Taking exception to a letter from the arbitrator saying the process would take a long time, the bench said it was inclined to change the arbitrator.

The bench, while saying it was not an intricate matter that would take such a long time to decide, wanted to know how much remuneration TISCO was paying the arbitrator. TISCO did not respond to this query.

As both the parties blamed each other for the delay, the bench said, "We need not go into this. The arbitrator is fully competent to control the proceedings. We see no reason why the arbitrator should take seven long years to pass even interim orders."

However, the bench gave time till December after the counsel for both the petitioner and TISCO said changing the arbitrator now would further delay the process.

The bench said, "We are inclined to recall earlier orders (appointing Justice Chandrachud as arbitrator) and change the arbitrator. However, parties request that it will lead to further delay in the settlement of claims as the arbitrator is expected to pass an interim award regarding the deceased shortly," the court said in its order.

While requesting the arbitrator to conclude the proceedings as soon as possible, the bench posted the petition for hearing in December.

Earlier, the court was informed that the arbitrator had already held 68 sittings while hearing the claims and TISCO's version.

The incident occurred on March 3, 1989, during the Founder's Day procession, which was witnessed by 9,000 spectators seated in five galleries around the statue of Jamshetji Tata.

The casualties occurred only in the VIP gallery, which accommodated around 1,100 people, mostly top TISCO officials and their families. Then TISCO managing director Russi Mody described the tragedy as unparalleled in the company's history and promised that no effort would be spared by the company to help the victims.

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