The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court on Tuesday asked the Uttar Pradesh government to present before it the state policy on compensations given to the kin of murder victims.

The bench of Justice Uma Nath Singh and Justice Satish Chandra gave the order after hearing the arguments of additional advocate general Bulbul Godiyal and the lawyer of social activist Nutan Thakur, who had filed a public interest litigation (PIL).

In the PIL, Thakur had prayed that while chief minister Akhilesh Yadav gave compensations of Rs. 50 lakh and Rs. 20 lakh each to the kin of the victims in the Pratapgarh triple murder incident, it had not given any compensation in other murder cases, including in the case of the "political murder" of Ram Babu Gupta in Tanda, Sultanpur.

Kunda deputy superintendent of police Zia-ul-Haq, panchayat chief Nanhe Yadav and his brother Suresh were killed in the triple murders. All four murders happened earlier this month.

The petition says that this is against the right to equality enshrined in the Constitution and the Uttar Pradesh government does not have the right to differentiate between cases of murder without sufficient reasons.

The petitioner prayed before the court that the state government should be directed to frame a specific policy for compensation in murder cases and that equal compensation be paid in all other recent murder cases.