MASSIMILANO LATORRE AND OTHERS versus UNION OF INDIA AND OTHERS

Citation: [2021] 6 S.C.R. 527 · Decided: 15-06-2021 · Supreme Court of India · Bench: INDIRA BANERJEE · Disposal: Disposed off
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Judgment (excerpt)

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MASSIMILANO LATORRE AND OTHERS
v.
UNION OF INDIA AND OTHERS
(Special Leave Petition (Civil) No.20370 of 2012)
(I.A.NO.58644/2020)
JUNE 15, 2021
[INDIRA BANERJEE AND M. R. SHAH, JJ.]
Penal Code, 1860 – ss.302, 307, 427 and 34 – United
Nationals Convention on the Law of the Sea, 1982 (UNCLOS) –
Annex VII – On 15.02.2012, two fishermen who were onboard the
boat registered in India, were fired at from a passing ship (an Italian
vessel) due to which both the fishermen died – FIR was registered –
Two Italian Marines- Petitioner no.1 & 2 were apprehended by the
police – A writ petition was filed by the Marines before the High
Court challenging the jurisdiction of the State and the Circle
Inspector of Police – Meanwhile, the Chief Judicial Magistrate
committed the case to the Court of Sessions – The writ petition was
dismissed by the High Court – Aggrieved, the Marines-petitioners
preferred the Special leave petition – It is the case of the petitioners
that India and Italy having signed and ratified the 1982 United
Nationals Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) agreed to
settle the dispute concerning the incident in question, in terms of
the binding dispute resolution mechanism provided under Annex
VII of the UNCLOS – International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea
(ITLOS) required both Italy and India to suspend all court
proceedings and recorded agreement of both the parties for the
same – Thereafter, award dated 21.05.2020 was delivered by the
Annex VII Arbitral Tribunal – That under the award, the Republic
of Italy had agreed to the amount of Rs.10 crores to be paid by Italy
as total compensation, excluding the amount of INR 21.7 million
already paid by Italy to the families of the victims – The State
Government proposed to disburse Rs.4 crores to the dependents of
each deceased and Rs.2 crores to the owner of the boat – The legal
heirs of each deceased and the owner of the boat have agreed to
the proposal and consented in writing to accept the amount of
compensation – In the light of these development, it is prayed to
[2021] 6 S.C.R. 527
527
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SUPREME COURT REPORTS
[2021] 6 S.C.R.
dispose of these proceedings and quash criminal proceedings u/
Art.142 of the Constitution – Held: Republic of Italy, Union of India,
State of Kerala and the heirs of the deceased fishermen and the
owner of the boat have agreed to accept the award dated 21.05.2020
of the Arbitral Tribunal – Also considering the fact that the Arbitral
Tribunal constituted under Annex VII of UNCLOS has delivered its
award dated 21.05.2020 under which the Republic of Italy has
agreed to pay the compensation of Rs. 10 crores, over and above
the amount of ex-gratia amount already paid and that the Arbitral
Tribunal has also duly recorded Republic of Italy’s commitment that
following the award Italy will resume its criminal investigation into
the incident of 15.02.2012 – The amount of compensation over and
above the ex-gratia amount of compensation already paid to the
heirs of the deceased fishermen is satisfactory – It is a fit case to
close all the proceedings in India including criminal proceedings
in exercise of powers u/Art. 142 of the Constitution – Thus, the
registered FIR is quashed and all the pending matters before the
Supreme Court are disposed of – Further, the Union of India,
Republic of Italy and the State of Kerala are directed to cooperate
with each other in pursuit of that investigation relating to incident
dated 15.02.2012.
CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION: Special Leave Petition
(Civil) No.20370 of 2012
From the Judgment and Order dated 29.05.2012 of the High Court
of Kerala at Ernakulam in W.P. (C) No.4542 of 2012.
Suhail Dutt, Sr. Adv., Diljeet Titus, Jagjit Singh Chhabra, Ujjwal
Sharma, Baljit Singh Kalha, Ninad Laud, Akshat Bhatnagar, Ms. Ananyaa
Mazumdar, Saksham Maheshwari, Advs. for the Petitioners.
Tushar Mehta, SG, Aman Lekhi, ASG, S. A. Haseeb, Suhashini
Sen, Rajat Nair, B. V. Balaram Das, G. Prakash, Jishnu M. L., Ms.
Priyanka Prakash, Ms. Beena Prakash, C. Unnikrishnan, A. Karthik,
Ms. Smrithi Suresh, Ms. Sreepriya K., Arsh Khan, Advs. for the
Respondents.
The Order of the Court was passed by
M. R. SHAH, J.
1. In an unfortunate incident which took place on 15.02.2012, two
fishermen who were onboard the boat “St. Antony” registered in India,
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namely, Valantine @ Jelestine, aged 44 years and Ajeesh Pink, aged 20
years, while fishing off the coast of Kerala, were fired at from a pass
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