Lagatar24 Desk
Gujarat, Nov 16: The Morbi Municipal Corporation (MMC) was criticised by the Gujarat High Court on Wednesday for neglecting to respond to a suo motu public interest lawsuit action concerning the tragic Morbi bridge collapse that resulted in the deaths of 135 people.
The MMC was ordered by a bench consisting of Chief Justice Aravind Kumar and Justice Ashutosh J. Shastri to file its response by this evening or face significant costs.
“Stop taking this matter so casually. Either file your affidavit by today evening or pay costs of Rs1 lakh,” Chief Justice Kumar told the counsel appearing for the MMC.
This came about after the MMC’s legal representative asked for more time to file a petition response. The bench had stated on Tuesday that the MMC was ‘playing smart’ by failing to appear in front of it despite being served with a notice.
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 explained.
Notably, the bench had yesterday asked the Gujarat government why the private contractor was still permitted to run the bridge and make money even though his prior contract had long since expired. The State has also received numerous inquiries from the bench regarding its own mistakes.
Last week, the Bench had taken suo motu notice of the terrible October 30 collapse of the Julto Pul suspension bridge in Morbi, Gujarat.
The State, its Chief Secretary, the Morbi Municipal Corporation, the Urban Development Department (UDD), the State Home Department, and the State Human Rights Commission were then ordered to be impleaded as parties in the matter by the Bench, and their responses were sought.
