A Delhi court will pronounce its verdict on November 20 in the 10-year-old Uphaar fire tragedy case, which claimed 59 lives during screening of a Hindi film.
Additional Sessions Judge Mamta Sehgal, who first said the verdict will be pronounced around November 16, then settled for November 20 for pronouncement of verdict following request for an exact date by the prosecution and the accused.
The counsel for the CBI and the accused persons submitted that the court should fix a particular date for the pronouncement of verdict and delete the word "around" from its order, which was allowed.
Meanwhile, the court rejected the plea of the accused to file additional written arguments in reply to the submissions brought on its record by the CBI saying the directions of the Supreme Court in this regard have already been complied with.
Earlier on September 5 the court had deferred the pronouncement of verdict in the case and ordered that it would decide the date of judgment on October 22.
A total of 12 accused, including theatre owners Sushil and Gopal Ansal, have been charged with causing death by negligence in the tragedy on June 13, 1997, when the devastating fire at Uphaar killed 59 people.
The judge had reserved the case verdict on August 21.
Four accused had died during the pendency of the trial in the case in which CBI had examined 115 witnesses.
The trial also witnessed some controversy when a court official was dismissed from service for tampering with the court documents allegedly at the instance of the main accused.
All the accused have been charged with causing death by negligence and endangering lives under the IPC and relevant provisions of the Cinematography Act, 1952.
