The Gujarat High Court on Friday extended the deadline for the state government to pay Rs 5 lakh compensation to the widow of a crew member of fishing trawler 'MV Kuber', which was hijacked by terrorists who carried out the 26/11 Mumbai attacks.
In its order dated October 22, Justice Bhargav D Karia had asked the Gujarat government to pay, by October 25, a compensation of Rs 5 lakh to Jashiben, whose husband Rameshbhai Bambhania along with four other fishermen was killed on MV Kuber in 2008.
The boat was hijacked by Ajmal Kasab and other Pakistani terrorists in the Arabian Sea and used to reach Mumbai.
Seeking relief on the ground that two days was not enough to make the payment, the state government approached a division bench comprising Chief Justice Vikram Nath and Justice A J Shastri.
On Thursday, the division bench asked the government to once again approach the single judge bench saying it has "trust the learned single judge will give due consideration to the request made by the state in the facts of the case".
When the matter came up for hearing on Friday before Justice Karia, government pleader Manisha Lavkumar prayed for more time to comply with the order as the state needed to first "verify that the late husband of the petitioner was part of the crew of boat Kuber".
The government pleader also drew the court's attention to the directive issued by the division bench on Thursday.
Taking the appeal into consideration, Justice Karia extended the deadline to November 11, when the court would also hear the matter.
The body of MV Kuber's captain, Amarsinh Solanki, was found on the boat, while bodies of four others, including Bambhania, were missing.
While passing the order on October 22, Justice Karia had said petitioner Jashiben should be paid under the 'Central Scheme for Assistance to Civilian Victims/Family of Victims of Terrorist/Communal/LWE Violence and Cross Border Firing and Mine/IED Blasts on Indian Territory'.
The money should be deposited in her bank account, and if she does not have an account, one should be opened, the court had said.
Apart from seeking compensation, Jashiben had also demanded that her husband be declared dead as over seven years have passed since the incident, and she should be paid the insurance money.
"The petitioner is the forgotten daughter of India... It has been extremely difficult in the last seven to eight years for the petitioner to survive and sustain and to live with dignity after losing the sole breadwinner," the petition stated.
It sought compensation from the Centre under the Central Scheme for Assistance to Civilian Victims of Terrorism, Communalism, Naxal Violence, and land from the Gujarat government as per its 2003 resolution.
The petition said as per media reports, only the family of the captain of the trawler, whose body was found, was paid a compensation of Rs 5 lakh.
The families of the other four fishermen have got no compensation other than Rs 50,000 given by the chief minister as their bodies were never found, it said.
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