The Madras High Court has directed T. Selvazhagan, the owner of the Kasimedu fishing boat that sank in Cyclone Murasu, to work out a far higher compensation for the families of the nine fishermen who died, calculated on the same formula used for the families of road-accident victims, The New Indian Express reported. The court will hear the matter again on Monday, November 16.

Source: The New Indian Express via Fisheries India

Justice V. Lakshminarayanan gave the direction on November 11 while hearing the boat owner's own petition. The owner's advocate, P. Vijendran, told the court that Selvazhagan had paid Rs 50,000 to each of the nine families and that they would receive another Rs 2.5 lakh each from insurance. The judge questioned the rationale behind such a small sum, describing it as paltry, and directed that the compensation be calculated taking into account the deceased person's age, earnings and dependents, as motor accident claims tribunals do. The Rs 2.5 lakh insurance figure is what the owner's advocate told the court the families would receive; it is not a confirmed payout, and no final additional compensation figure has been fixed yet.

Daily Kiran reported on November 12 that the court also directed the petitioner's lawyer to clarify how much additional compensation the owner intends to offer, ordered that the families of the nine fishermen be made parties to the case, and instructed the police to compile details of all nine families. The prosecution sought time to verify the claim that the wives of three of the fishermen had withdrawn their complaints. That claim has not been verified, and the court has not accepted it as fact.

Source: Daily Kiran

What happened at sea

The nine men were crew on a trawler owned by Selvazhagan that left Kasimedu, Chennai's largest fishing harbour, on October 29. At around 3 am on November 3 the crew made a distress call reporting engine failure, water entering the engine room and a broken navigation system, before the boat sank off the Andhra Pradesh coast as Cyclone Murasu made landfall near Kothapatnam. Reports published on November 7 said seven bodies had been recovered and two fishermen, Rajesh and Narayanan, were still missing; the court proceedings treat all nine as deceased. The Tamil Nadu government has announced a solatium of Rs 7 lakh for each family, with Rs 2 lakh paid immediately. That government payment is separate from any court-directed payment by the owner.

What happens next: on November 16 the court will see the owner's calculation and whether the families and the prosecution accept it. The hearing comes as the India Meteorological Department has forecast a fresh low-pressure area over the southeast Bay of Bengal and the Tamil Nadu fisheries department has advised fishing vessels to return to shore, a warning issued in the shadow of the Kasimedu tragedy.