Kinara Hotel fire: Bombay High Court holds BMC liable, orders Rs 50 lakh compensation for each victim’s family
The Bombay High Court has held the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) responsible for the 2015 fire at Hotel City Kinara in Mumbai's Kurla area that killed eight people. The court directed BMC to pay Rs 50 lakh compensation to each victim’s family within 12 weeks.
In a significant ruling, the Bombay High Court has held the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) responsible for the 2015 fire at Hotel City Kinara in Mumbai's Kurla area, which claimed the lives of eight people. In a strongly worded judgment, the court ordered the civic body to pay Rs 50 lakh as compensation to each victim’s family within 12 weeks. If the amount is not paid in time, the BMC will be liable to pay interest at 9% per annum from the date of the order until the full amount is disbursed.
The court’s order came in response to a petition filed by the families of the victims, who had initially approached the Lokayukta seeking compensation and accountability. The Lokayukta had dismissed the complaint, citing an earlier ex-gratia payment and passing the responsibility to the Kurla tehsildar. The families then moved the Bombay High Court, challenging the decision.
A division bench of Justice B P Colabawalla and Justice Firdosh P. Pooniwalla heard the matter and concluded that the BMC’s negligence directly contributed to the incident. The court noted that although the fire may have originated due to the carelessness of the restaurant’s management, the civic body had failed in its duty to enforce fire safety regulations.
The incident occurred on October 16, 2015, when a group of eight people had gathered at Hotel City Kinara in Kurla for lunch. Around 1:20 pm, a fire broke out, resulting in the deaths of all eight guests. The state government had earlier given an ad-hoc compensation of Rs 1 lakh to each victim's family, but the court clarified that this did not relieve the BMC of its responsibility.
The court further clarified that while the BMC is free to recover the compensation amount from the restaurant owners and operators, it cannot evade its primary liability towards the petitioners. The bench observed that such incidents reflected systemic negligence and stressed the need for stricter implementation of fire safety norms by civic bodies.
The court also set aside the Lokayukta’s decision to dismiss the case and reaffirmed that the BMC’s failure to act was a direct cause of the fatalities.