The Supreme Court directed Bihar to pay Rs 20,000 for every death and Rs 5,000 for every injured person from the 19 April 1986 Arwal police firing, adjusting sums already paid, in a petition alleging the SP-led force surrounded 600-700 peaceful peasants at Gandhi Library and opened fire without warning, killing at least 21 including children. The Court treated such compensation as the ordinary consequence of police-firing deaths, raising the State Rs 10,000 ex gratia to the normal scale. It left the justification for the firing and the challenge to Arwal PS Case 59 of 1986 allegedly foisted on innocents including the dead to the pending Patna High Court writ. It also directed the pending police-case investigation to finish within three months.
This page documents a court-adjudicated case from the judgment and cited sources below. Findings are attributed to the court; this record does not add findings of its own.
How verification works →By judgment dated 19 December 1986 in Writ Petition (Criminal) No. 369 of 1986, the Supreme Court of India returned findings adverse to the Superintendent of Police, Bihar Police, and directed payment of compensation of Rs 20,000.
Compiled from the judgment and the cited sources. Findings are those of the court; this card adds none of its own.
The Supreme Court of India judgment dated 19 December 1986 is the concluded position shown in the cited sources.
Reliable material supports a specifically documented fact relevant to that allegation, not necessarily the full allegation, causation, intent, unlawfulness, or responsibility.
Official finding: supports allegation.
Holding not recorded separately.
“for every case of death compensation of Rupees twenty thousand and for every injured person compensation of Rupees five thousand shall be paid.” (para n/a)
The Supreme Court of India recorded adverse findings against police personnel and ordered Rs 20,000.
(Round-8 full re-verification: published record re-checked against the judgment text (outcome, officers, quote, key facts) plus methodology-compliance pass; skills-guided adversarial re-verification of the published record against the judgment text (reverify/t1-*/adversarial-8.jsonl))
Corrections (0): No corrections recorded.
Review: Solo Staff combined review (one combined attestation) — not yet recorded.
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