New Delhi: A Supreme Court bench led by the Chief Justice of India, SA Bobde, has directed the central government to deposit the award money given by Italy in the case pertaining to the shooting of two Indian fishermen, to the apex court within a week of receiving.
The bench also comprising of Justice AS Bopanna and Justice V Ramasubramanian, was hearing a plea by the centre which sought to close the Italian marine case, now that the matter has been settled. It is known that the matter was subjected to international arbitration and that Italy was directed to make compensation to the deceased's families.
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"As you are aware Indians are the best in negotiating money, we negotiated for 10 crores more and victims have also agreed to it," said the Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta, adding that 4 crores will be given to the dependents of the deceased and 2 crores to the owner of the boat.
The state of Kerala informed the court that it has also contacted the victims' families and they are fine with it. The only thing is that the money is deposited in the Supreme court till the proceedings are disposed of.
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Italy told the court that they are waiting for the Ministry of External Affairs to provide an account number in order to transfer the money. It also clarified before the court that it would only be responsible for the total amount and not how it would be disbursed to which the court and the government agreed. The court had said that it will decide on the disbursal of the amount.
The SG told the court that he will share the account number today itself with the Italian government and will transfer the amount to the SC within 3 days. Taking a dig at SG, CJI commented that he should show the same speed in regular matters also where the government takes a lot of time to respond.
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The next hearing in the matter will be heard on 19th April.
