Team News Riveting
Ahmedabad, November 16
The Gujarat High Court Wednesday took a strong exception over the callous attitude of the Morbi Municipal Corporation (MMC) in filing its response to a suo motu public interest litigation case taken up by it in connection with the tragic Morbi bridge collapse.
In the incident that took place on October 30, 135 persons were killed as the British-era suspension bridge collapsed. A bench of Chief Justice Aravind Kumar and Justice Ashutosh J Shastri asked the MMC to either file its response by evening today or pay hefty costs.
“Stop taking this matter so casually. Either file your affidavit by today evening or pay costs of Rs 1 lakh,” Chief Justice Kumar told the counsel appearing for the MMC. This was after the counsel appearing for the MMC sought some time for filing its response in the petition.
The bench had on Tuesday taken a note that the MMC was ‘playing smart’ by not appearing before it despite a notice being issued. However, the MMC today informed that the civic body is being looked after by the deputy collector, Morbi.
“He is also on election duty. The notice should have been served to him but it was served to the civic body on November 9. Thus, the delay in appearing before this court,” the counsel defended.
Notably, the bench had yesterday sought to know from the Gujarat government as to why the private contractor allowed to operate the bridge and earn revenue despite his previous agreement expiring way back in 2017. It had also posed many questions to the State regarding the lapses on its part.
Last week, the Bench had taken suo motu cognizance of the tragic collapse of a suspension bridge called Julto Pul in Morbi, Gujarat on October 30.
The Bench had then directed the State, its Chief Secretary, the Morbi Municipal Corporation, the Urban Development Department (UDD), the State Home Department and the State Human Rights Commission to be impleaded as parties in the matter and sought their responses.
