Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Nov 7: The Gujarat High Court on Monday took suo motu notice of the collapse of the Morbi Bridge on October 30.
On October 30, the 141-year-old suspension bridge in Morbi, Gujarat, which spans the Machchuu river, collapsed, killing about 135 people. The bridge had recently undergone maintenance and repairs by a private company, the Oreva Group, when it collapsed.
A bench of Chief Justice Aravind Kumar and Justice Ashutosh J. Shastri stated that it was depressing to see so many people die unnecessarily in the incident.
“Advocate General, it was disheartening. More than 100 persons have died an untimely death. So we have taken a suo motu cognizance of it. We want to know what steps have you (state) taken so far,” the Court stated.
The court ordered the State, the State Home Department, the State Human Rights Commission, the State, the State’s Chief Secretary, the Morbi Municipal Corporation, Urban Development Department (UDD), and State to be impleaded as parties.
The State was asked for a report on the actions taken thus far within ten days, and a follow-up hearing was scheduled for November 14, 2022. It was mandated that the State Human Rights Commission submit a separate report on the occurrence.
In order to register a Times of India article on the incident as a public interest lawsuit (PIL), CJ Aravind Kumar instructed the High Court Registrar over the phone on October 31, 2022. However, due to the Diwali holiday, he was unable to sit in court that day to hear the case.
Advocate General Kamal Trivedi and Senior Advocate Manisha Lavkumar Shah represented the State.
