‘For them, life comes only once’: Bombay High Court orders immediate release of 50 seafarers on 3 stranded vessels

The petitioners, represented through the Maharashtra Navnirman Navin Sena Union, claimed they were stranded inside the vessels since February 9, and the owners had “practically abandoned” the ships as well as deserted the crew in the Arabian Sea.

The vessels were intercepted by the Indian Coast Guard (ICG), and the ships were under arrest by the Yellow Gate police over alleged illegal acts in the Arabian Sea, at a distance of 11 nautical miles from Mumbai.

On Monday, a bench of Justices Ravindra V Ghuge and Hiten S Venegavkar expressed concern over their safety and sought crew members’ presence before the court, observing that they cared for humans and not the dead vessels.

On Tuesday, Justice Ghuge quipped to the lawyers representing the owners of the vessels, who raised apprehensions about the vessels being unmanned if all the crew members were released without any replacement.

The judge orally remarked, “We will release all of them today itself. You take care of your vessels and commercial activities. We will take care of human life. You can read their faces. The happiness of breathing ‘free air’ and being on ‘mother earth’. And they must be feeling so relieved to be on land. We will allow them to be happy for some time. And we are sure when you replace them with another complement of staff, you will stop the petitioners’ salaries and you will start paying them (the replaced crew) the salaries.”

“For them life comes only once, and they have to feed their family members. There must be at least four other mouths who are dependent on them, including wife, children and old parents. You will not think of that. It is only the court of law that will think of that. For you, the monies are very important and not the human lives…Now we cannot hold them back. Now the owners have to decide how the ships have to be taken care of, whether temporarily you will bring them closer to the inner anchorage or move the vessels to the Alang Ship Breaking Yard,” Justice Ghuge added.

‘No reason to detain any of them’

The Bombay High Court was informed that the seafarers were only supplied 300 millilitres of drinking water daily per person, with no other cooking means, and were suffering ‘tremendously’. (Express Photo)

The petitioners had claimed that they were in wrongful confinement for nearly three months and sought directions from the court to allow them to “sign-off, disembark” and be repatriated.

Advocate Padmavati Vaishya, for the petitioners, argued that they were held as “human collateral” on “dead ships” after a First Information Report lodged in February, despite no involvement in the alleged commercial fraud perpetrated by the vessels’ owners.

Vaishya interacted with each of the 50 seafarers present in the court, and each confirmed he did not desire to return to the vessel.

The petitioners argued they were supplied only 300 millilitres of drinking water daily per person, with no other cooking means, were preparing chapatis/rotis by burning wood, and were suffering “tremendously”.

Investigating officer Police Inspector Ravindra Mohite confirmed he interacted with them after they reached the shore, and none of them desired to return. The seafarers reiterated this to the judges and also raised concerns about pending salaries.

“Since all these 50 are adults, we have no reason to detain any of them under any compulsion as may be voiced by the owners of the vessels, keeping in view that they claim to have suffered starvation and thirst while on the vessels,” the high court held and directed authorities to complete formalities to set them free.