India's Supreme Court to Hear Plea Seeking Judicial Probe Into Morbi Bridge Collapse

The British-era suspension bridge in Morbi, a city in Gujarat, India, collapsed on October 30, resulting in the death of 135 people. Local police initiated an investigation, in which nine people have been arrested so far.

India's Supreme Court is scheduled to hear a constitutional plea seeking to establish a judicial commission to probe the Morbi bridge collapse incident in the state of Gujarat.

The public interest litigation (PIL) was filed by advocate Vishal Tiwari on November 1; who noted that the matter was urgent, and the top court said that it would address the issue soon.

The PIL, which said that the accident revealed the negligence and utter failure of the city authorities, stated that “from the past decade, various incidents have taken place in our country wherein due to mismanagement, lapses in duty, and negligent maintenance activities, there have been cases of huge public casualties which could have been avoided.”

The advocate also stressed that the judicial commission should be set up under the chairmanship of a retired top court judge to probe the matter and sought directions to the states to form a committee to survey and conduct risk assessment regarding old and risky monuments and bridges to ensure environmental viability and safety.

Also, Tiwari requests the issuing of a direction for the states to establish construction incident investigation departments to ensure that timely probes can be launched whenever such incidents occur. He has suggested that such departments should also enquire about the quality and safety of any public construction taking place.

“The incident at Morbi has shocked the country, wherein due to the utter lapse and negligence on the part of government authorities, along with negligence and fault in duty by the private operator, has resulted in a severe violation of fundamental rights of the people under Article 21 of the Constitution of India,” Tiwari alleged in his plea.

The plea states that several old bridges and monuments, which attract a large number of tourists, are located in the country and a risk assessment needs to be looked into to avoid similar disasters in the future.

Last week the Morbi civic body in an affidavit to the Gujarat High Court admitted that the bridge shouldn’t have been reopened.

The response from the civic body came after Gujarat High Court, which took suo motu cognizance of the tragic incident, had slammed it over the delay in filing a status report on the collapse of the British-era suspension bridge.