The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Maharashtra government to inform it whether compensation had been paid to the legal heirs of the 168 people who were stated to have been reported missing during the 1992-93 communal riots in what was then Bombay.

The apex court also asked the state government whether these 168 people were among the around 900 identified victims of the riots.

A bench headed by Justice S.K. Kaul said it required information on whether any compensation was paid for the loss of property, when the compensation was paid and the time lag between the date of incident and payment of compensation.

“We would require information on: (a) Whether the figure of 168 persons, who are stated to be missing, was a part of the 900 number of victims identified. (b) Whether any compensation has been paid to the legal heirs of the persons who have been found missing,” said the bench, which also had Justices A.S. Oka and Vikram Nath.

The top court, which reserved its verdict on a plea raising issues including that of payment of compensation to the victims of the 1992-93 riots, asked the state government to file within two weeks an affidavit detailing the information sought by the bench.

The court told the counsel appearing for the state that broadly three issues had been raised by the petitioner’s advocate.

It said one of the issues was that the legal service authority or the legal service system must come to the aid of people who have borne the brunt of social incidents that are criminal in nature.

The apex court said the two other issues were — there must be adequate compensation taking into context the time period; and in matters where police officers are involved, every endeavour should be made to have an independent investigation.

The bench observed that as per the chart placed before it, 900 people had died in the violence. It said: “168 persons have gone missing. After completion of seven years, their families must get compensation.”

The counsel appearing for the state said the total compensation paid was Rs 17 crore.

Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for the petitioner, referred to the report of the Justice B.N. Srikrishna Commission and said it had dedicated a chapter to several policemen and their role in the riots.

He also referred to the legal aid system in riots cases and said victims were left to fend for themselves.

The bench observed that today legal aid had a very different structure and a lot of things had been done to provide such assistance.

“A complete set up is made…. Brother Chief Justice has worked in the last-one-and-a-half years strengthening the legal aid system. At least on the judicial side I have had many opportunities to see the things being done. Merely because it has failed in the past does not mean that it will fail today,” Justice Kaul observed.

The bench said the legal aid system had to be strengthened to give support to everybody and that had happened over a period of time.

The top court had in February 2020 asked the Maharashtra government to apprise it of the action taken against the police officers who were allegedly indicted by the commission of inquiry that probed the 1992-1993 riots.

It had noted that the commission headed by Justice B.N. Srikrishna had filed its report in 1998. The bench had also noted that despite the fact that the apex court had called upon the state to file a detailed affidavit regarding the action taken against police officers way back in December 2018 and repeated the order later, nothing had been done so far.

The bench had said the affidavit would also state the details of the compensation for the victims mentined in the report and the quantum.

The apex court had passed the order in February 2020 while dealing with several pleas filed since 1998 seeking direction for implementation of the recommendations made in the Justice Srikrishna Commission report.

Justice Srikrishna, a former Supreme Court judge, was appointed to head the commission to inquire into the December 1992-January 1993 riots that shook Mumbai. He was a sitting judge of Bombay High Court then.

The commission was set up when there was a Congress government in Maharashtra and it was disbanded in 1996 after a Shiv Sena-BJP government came to power in 1995. However, soon it was reconstituted in 1996 with terms of reference including the Mumbai bomb blasts of March 1993.

The Srikrishna commission report, submitted in April 1998, had indicted leaders of some political parties and police officers.