Chandigarh, March 15: The Punjab and Haryana High Court has issued a stern warning to the Chandigarh Administration regarding the non-payment of ₹1.5 crore in compensation to victims of the Carmel Convent School tree-fall tragedy. Justice Vikas Bahl stated that the authorities must submit a compliance report by March 27 or the officials concerned will be required to appear before the bench via video conferencing to explain the delay.
The court noted that the original judgment, delivered on September 29, 2025, directed the Administration to pay ₹1 crore to the father of a deceased student and ₹50 lakh to a girl who lost her arm in the incident. Despite a legal notice for compliance issued in January, the funds have yet to be disbursed. Counsel for the petitioners, Ramdeep Partap Singh and Sahil Koul, declared that the delay continues to cause hardship to the families involved.
“There is no stay of the operation of the order dated September 29, 2025,” Justice Bahl asserted after the Administration argued that an appeal had been filed earlier this month. The judge maintained that the filing of an appeal, which occurred only after the contempt notice was served, does not absolve the authorities of their immediate obligation to compensate the victims.
The High Court had previously rejected the Administration’s defense that the tragedy was an “act of God,” affirming instead that the Engineering Department was negligent. In the earlier ruling, Justice Kuldeep Tiwari stated that the UT’s resistance to the compensation claim reflected a lack of empathy and sensitivity, especially since other remedial measures from the inquiry report had already been implemented.
