The student had sought direction to the secretaries of home, law, industries and other officials to amend the legislation to prevent owners of fireworks factories from escaping the clutches of law and prescribing minimum sentence for them in case of accidents. The division bench of Justices Sathish K. Agnihotri and R. Sudhakar appointed two advocates as amicus curiae to help the Madurai bench of the high court in the proceedings of the writ petition.
Besides the secretaries, the girl also sought a direction to the Virudhunagar collector, RDO, SP and officials of explosives, fire and rescue services, labour and factories, and fire workers manufacturers' association to ensure safety measures in the fireworks factories in the state, to function with proper permission from the competent authorities and to implement safety measures to prevent recurrence of tragic deaths in future.
The petitioner is now pursuing her education with the help of a trust. She charged the factory owners with not taking care of the families, who were injured or killed in the accident. She said she studied several fireworks factory fire accident cases filed in the courts in Virudhunagar district and said not even in a single case the owner of the factory was punished under the Explosives Act or Factories Act. "This is cruel. Only way to make them (owners) also accountable for accidents is to lay down new conditions and rules in the above said Acts," she said.
Though the owners of the factories were earning in millions, they did not spend anything on safety aspects. Similarly, while one factory owner gave compensation of Rs 2 lakh to the families of those killed, another gave Rs 50,000. The number of deaths was increasing year after year. From five deaths in 2005, the toll touched 57 last year. The workers were being asked to work at night when they are tired, she said in her letter.
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