The Supreme Court issued notices to the Centre, Taj Hotel, Oberoi Continental and Trident on a petition seeking directions to the hotels to install inbuilt security system so that terror attacks like 26/11 do not recur.

The petitioner has also urged the Court to direct the Centre to set up a contingency fund so that prompt and adequate financial assistance could be provided to the victims of such attacks.

A bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice B S Chauhan issued the notices after hearing counsel for the petitioner who contended that all the leading hotels were caught napping without any safety or security measures to deal with terror attacks.

According to the petitioner, it will be in the national interest that proper lessons are learnt from the incident which took a heavy toll on innocent lives, coupled with colossal loss of property.

Nearly 200 people, including foreign tourists lost their lives and senior police officers, including then Joint Commissioner of ATS, Mumbai, Hemant Karkare, were also killed.

UNI