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Court orders compensation to families of missing crew

J. Venkatesan

NEW DELHI: Taking a serious view of the Centre’s indifference to trace the missing vessel ‘Jupiter 6’ since 2005, the Supreme Court has directed the government to disclose details of the marine casualties that took place involving Indian vessel or crew members since October 2002.

A Bench, consisting of Justice R.V. Raveendran and Justice L.S. Panta passed this interim order on a writ petition filed by the family members of the missing crew for a probe into the mysterious disappearance of the vessel and award of compensation.

The Bench also ordered payment of compensation stating that pendency of this petition or any further investigation in the matter by any agency should not come in the way of either the Insurers/owners/managers of the tug paying compensation to the family members of the missing crew.

The petitioners, Sabeeha Faikage and four others in their petition said that they were the next of kith and kin of their respective family members who were employed by their foreign principals to work on board a foreign tug ship, ‘Jupiter 6’, which consisted of 10 Indians and 3 Ukranians. The ship was said to have sailed from Walvis Bay to India via South Africa on August 21, 2005, when the crew informed their families of their return to India. They said that according to the agent Jupiter 6 went missing since September 5, 2005.

The Bench in its order said “the grievance and complaint made in this petition is that if the Indian Government and the Managers of the tug had acted with necessary care and expedition, in all probability the lives of the crew members of the tug could have been saved.”

It said “to ascertain whether there is any basis for the grievance of the petitioners, we direct the Directorate General of Shipping to collect, analyse and prepare a report with reference to the following information, viz how many reports of marine casualties have been received by the Indian Government after October 10, 2002 involving Indian citizens on board of foreign flag vessels and how many are received within 48 hours of the occurrence of the incident as required by the Directorate?; In how many cases, Indian Government has been invited to participate in the marine casualty investigation by the lead State or the flag State In how many cases the Indian Government has made available to the public the final report in regard to marine casualty incidents and, if so, the period and the manner in which it has been so made public.” The Bench directed the matter to be listed after four weeks.

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