SC will hear 'Italian marines' matter on April 9

The Supreme Court will take up the matter pertaining to two Italian marines on Friday.

The apex court was reacting to a mentioning by the Union of India (UOI), which stated that the SC should hear as there is an "urgency in the matter."

"We will hear it on Friday," the three-judge bench, headed by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sharad Arvind Bobde, and comprising Justice A S Bopanna and Justice V Ramasubraman said.

The Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta, senior law officer representing the UOI, mentioned the matter before the bench and said that the Centre contacted the victims' families and they have already been given compensations as was directed by the SC.

To this, the CJI questioned the SG whether the compensation is still in force.

Mehta replied in the affirmative.

In July last year, the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) had given its decision saying that the two Italian marines -- Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone -- would not be tried in India and had ruled that India is entitled to claim compensation from Italy.

It had observed that the marines had violated international laws and, as a result, Italy breached India's freedom of navigation, under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

On February 15, 2012, the two Indian fishermen were killed off the coast of Kerala by the two Italian marines on-board the Italian-flagged commercial oil tanker MV Enrica Lexie.

( With inputs from ANI )