SC wants monitoring of Morbi bridge case

NEW DELHI: Calling the Morbi suspension bridge collapse an "enormous tragedy", the Supreme Court on Monday asked the Gujarat high court to examine the case periodically to ensure that the investigation fixes accountability of those guilty of criminal negligence and to offer adequate compensation to the next of kin of victims.

- Utkarsh Anand

The apex court also asked the high court to examine putting in place a regulatory mechanism to ensure incidents such as the bridge collapse in Gujarat do not recur in the future.

Taking up two separate writ petitions on the issue, a bench led by Chief Justice of India Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud observed that the top court would have examined the matter itself in the wake of the "glaring facts" had the high court not initiated proceedings on its own (suo motu) on November 7 and passed three orders since then.

Days after it was reopened following renovation, the suspension bridge on Machchu river in Gujarat's Morbi town collapsed on October 30, killing 135 people. The petitions filed in the Supreme Court, however, pegged the death toll at 141.

"It's an enormous tragedy and there's no doubt about it. This will require a weekly hearing to examine various aspects such as  the status of the investigation, the manner in which the contract was awarded, attribution of responsibility and the award of contract to the company concerned, the grant of compensation and the need for an independent investigation. But for the fact that the high court has already taken charge, we would have taken it ourselves and looked into this," remarked the bench, which also included justice Hima Kohli. The bench said that a periodic intervention by a judicial forum is warranted in the facts of the case to ascertain whether the investigation requires to be conducted by a team independent of state police officials, besides scrutinising the action taken or being contemplated against the officials of the Morbi municipality and Ajanta Manufacturing Ltd, which was awarded the contract to maintain and operate the British-era suspension bridge.