A Delhi court on Wednesday deferred the hearing till Thursday on the quantum of punishment in the Uphaar cinema tragedy case as the arguments remained inconclusive.

Additional Sessions Judge Mamta Sehgal said she may pronounce the quantum of sentence against all the 12 convicts, including cinema hall owners Sushil and Gopal Ansal, on Friday after hearing the remaining arguments of the defence and the CBI.

Meanwhile, the counsel for convicts, who were asked by the court to argue on the point of sentence concluded their submissions regarding 11 of them and partly of Gopal Ansal.

The common submission by all the convicts was that they should be either sentenced only to a fine or be released on probation otherwise, as a custodial punishment was not mandatory for the provisions of the law under which they have been held guilty.

During the hearing, one of the convicts Shyam Sunder Sharma fainted in the jampacked courtroom due to suffocation.

He could however regain his consciousness after sometime.

The court had on Tuesday convicted Sushil and Gopal Ansal, two Municipal Corporation of Delhi officials Shyam Sunder Sharma and N D Tiwari and a Delhi Fire Service Officer H S Panwar under Sections 304A and 337 and 338 of the IPC, which pertain to endangering human lives.

Seven others, including those responsible for managing day-to-day affairs of Uphaar and three Delhi Vidyut Board officials, were convicted for graver charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder under Section 304 of the IPC, entailing maximum punishment of life term.

A major fire had engulfed the Uphaar theatre in south Delhi on June 13, 1997, during the screening of Hindi film Border, leading to the death of 59 people due to asphyxia.