Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Nov 21: The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear two petitions that called for an independent investigation into the Morbi bridge collapse.
Notably, the incident occurred on October 30 and left 141 people dead. The Gujarat High Court has already taken suo moto cognisance of the incident.
However, the apex Court gave the petitioners permission to approach the High Court to discuss their concerns, either by submitting a separate writ petition in accordance with Article 226 of the Constitution or by intervening in the suo motu case.
A PIL filed by Attorney Vishal Tiwari and a petition filed by Chavada Dilipbhai were both being considered by a bench made up of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justice Hima Kohli.
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The Supreme Court observed in its decision on the petitions that the High Court should consider the aforementioned issues submitted by the petitioners.
“We are of the view that the High Court would also bring to bear its time and attention on other aspects of the matter which have been highlighted above while recording the submissions of the learned counsel of the petitioner”, the Supreme Court stated in the order.
The bench headed by the CJI noted that the High Court is keeping an eye on various aspects of the case almost weekly and that several of those aspects would call for regular responses from the State’s and the nagar palika’s officials. The High Court “would definitely be possessed of making sure a regulating framework so that such instances do not recur,” it further said.
“Since the Division Bench led by the Chief Justice has already entertained suo motu proceedings, we are of the view of that the future conduct of the proceedings remains with that Division Bench of the High Court”, the bench noted.
