Morbi bridge collapse: Supreme Court to hear PIL for judicial probe on November 14

The PIL filed by advocate Vishal Tiwari had sought directions to appoint a Judicial Commission under the supervision of a retired Supreme Court judge

The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear on November 14 a PIL seeking a direction for a court-monitored judicial inquiry into the horrific Morbi bridge collapse tragedy.

Petitioner-advocate Vishal Tiwari mentioned the matter before a bench presided over by Chief Justice U U Lalit.

"You are very quick," the bench observed as it listed the matter on November 14.

The PIL sought a direction for a probe led by a retired SC judge in the tragedy of October 30, which claimed lives of over 130 people, including 50 children and 35 women.

Also Read | Morbi bridge collapse toll rises to 136; cops arrest 9 people, say 'callousness' led to tragedy

Police had arrested nine people on Monday over the suspension bridge collapse on Machchhu river in Morbi town, Gujarat.

Tiwari, in his plea, also sought a detailed safety audit of all old public structures across country, permanent disaster probe team in states to promptly attend to such tragedies.

"Such incident prima facie depicts the serious condition of responsibility, lapse, negligence, failure of administration, and unfaithful duty of care towards to the public by the government authorities.The maintenance and repairing work was delegated to a private operator, who had absolutely failed in the functioning of the bridge," Tiwari said, in his PIL.

The plea claimed that since the 1989 Bihar-Banmakhi Express train accident tragedy, which led to to 500 casualties, to the Morbi bridge collapse, it was clear that nothing in the administration had changed wherein such actions could have been avoided by showing reasonable duty of care and upfront repair and development activity.

"The Supreme Court should impose absolute liability on the Central and State Government to put public interest at large and work in accordance to public welfare. Many a times, there are reports of casualties, due to over crowding and lack of management by the administration and its municipal bodies thereby causing severe public casualties," it said.