MUMBAI, June 11 -- Almost ten years after eight people, seven of them students, died in a fire in a Kurla restaurant, the Bombay High Court has held the civic administration responsible for the tragedy and directed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to pay Rs.50 lakh each, to the families of the eight victims. The fire broke out on October 16, 2015, at Hotel City Kinara, on Premier Road in Kurla West, where seven students from the nearby Don Bosco Institute of Technology were seated, out for lunch. The eighth patron, seated near the youngsters, was an engineer with a private firm. All eight patrons had been ushered to the air-conditioned mezzanine, where the fire later broke out. The blaze was caused by a leak in an LPG cylinder stored nearby. It took only minutes for the flames to engulf the mezzanine, killing all eight victims within minutes. On Tuesday, a division bench of Justice BP Colabawalla and Justice Firdosh P Pooniwalla said the fire could have been entirely prevented if the BMC had acted on finding that the eatery had committed several breaches of fire safety norms. It held that the "deliberate inaction and negligence" on the part of civic officials in fulfilling their duties had resulted in the fire and loss of lives. The judges said the fire could have been avoided if the BMC had discharged its statutory duties by cancelling the restaurant's eating house licence, seizing illegally used LPG cylinders, and prohibiting the use of the loft area/ mezzanine to serve patrons. The eight individuals who died in the blaze were: Akash Thapar, 19, Erwin D'Souza, 18, Brian Fernando, 20, Sharjeel Shaikh, 20, Taha Shaikh, 20, Bernadette D'Souza, 18, Sajid Chaudhary, 20, and Arvind Kanaujia, 32. On August 28, 2016, parents of the seven students filed a complaint with the Lokayukta, seeking an investigation into the fire and appropriate compensation. They approached the high court after the Lokayukta dismissed their complaint on February 27, 2017, which stated that the compensation sum had already been deposited with the tehsildar, Kurla. While deciding the petitions, the high court noted that there had been complaints about various breaches at the restaurant since September 2012. The BMC, which conducted several inspections, had recorded these breaches, time and again, but did not act on them. The court noted that the BMC's health department had granted the restaurant an eating house licence even though the eaterie did not have a fire NOC (no-objection certificate), a mandatory requirement. The lack of the fire NCO was noted during an inspection by the BMC in September 2012. "Despite having knowledge of the fact that Kinara (City Kinara) was being operated without a fire NOC, the BMC took no action," the court said. Similarly, despite knowing that the rules permitted loft areas and mezzanines in eateries to be used only for storage, Hotel City Kinara was using the space to serve patrons. In an inspection carried out by a civic official on September 2, 2015 - 44 days before the fire - it was specifically noted that the mezzanine was being used to serve patrons, the judges said. Although BMC officials were aware of this breach, a fire hazard, no action was taken in this regard. The court said the BMC had "committed gross negligence and acted totally in breach of its statutory duties" by initially granting an eating house licence to the restaurant without a fire NOC, though mandatorily required, and thereafter by not taking any action even after the breach was discovered. According to the judges, the use of LPG cylinders without a licence and storing them in the mezzanine was another major breach neglected by the civic officials. Holding that the gross breach of statutory duties by civic officials had violated the fundamental rights of the petitioners - the right to life, in terms of loss of their loved ones - the BMC was to compensate them, the court ruled. It concluded that each family of the deceased would be entitled to compensation of Rs.50 lakh, as all the deceased, except Kanaujia, were young students pursuing a professional education. The court directed that the compensation be paid in 12 weeks. When asked about the HC order, BMC commissioner Bhushan Gagrani said, "We are obtaining legal advice and may appeal in the Supreme Court."...