Trial by Fire: Delhi HC reserves order on Sushil Ansal's plea seeking stay on Netflix show based on Uphaar fire tragedy

Netflix’s upcoming series Trial By Fire has landed in some legal trouble days before its release. The Abhay Deol and Rajshri Deshpande-starrer show is based on the Uphaar fire tragedy, which killed 59 people in 1997. Real estate baron Sushil Ansal, one of the accused in the case, had moved Delhi High Court requesting a stay on the show’s release.

On Wednesday, the court reserved its decision in the plea. Justice Yashwant Varma reserved the order on Ansal’s application “seeking relief of temporary injunction filed in the suit that seeks permanent and mandatory injunction against the series,” according to a Live Law report. The plea also seeks a stay on the publication of the book of the same title on which the show is based.

The book Trial By Fire has been authored by Neelam Krishnamoorthy and Shekhar Krishnamoorthy, who lost their two kids in the fire that engulfed Uphaar Cinema Hall in Delhi in 1997. The aftermath of the incident saw cinema owners Sushil Ansal and Gopal Ansal bein ordered to pay compensation to the victims and their families. The brothers were also awarded a seven-year prison sentence in the evidence tampering case in connection with the fire in 2021.

Ansal has moved the court claiming that his name has been used thrice in the trailer of the show, harming his reputation. He has also demanded that the series carry a disclaimer that it is a ‘work of fiction’. Whether the show will release as slated on Friday will depend on the court’s order now.

The Uphaar Cinema fire took place on June 13, 1997 while the Green Park theatre was screening the Hindi film Border. 59 people were trapped inside the hall and died and 103 were seriously injured in the resulting stampede. The victims and the families of the deceased later formed The Association of Victims of Uphaar Fire Tragedy, which fought a long battle against the Ansals, owners of Uphaar Cinema. The victims were awarded Rs 25 crore in compensation by the Supreme Court, one of the highest ever in Indian civil law history.