The Bombay High Court on Thursday took suo moto cognizance of the building collapse in Bhiwandi in Thane and said, “it is a very serious incident”, where 41 were declared dead and 25 rescued by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF).
A Division Bench of Chief Justice (CJ) Dipankar Datta and justice GS Kulkarni was hearing a matte related to a construction in Kalyan Dombivali and the CJ remarked, the incident in Bhiwandi was very serious.
The 43-year-old Jilani building in the powerloom town is around 10 km from Thane. The three-storey structure had 40 flats and 150 people were living there.
The court said, “A building has collapsed in Bhiwandi, several lives have been lost. We are told the situation is quite serious in Mumbai too.”
Taking suo moto cognizance of the same, the court made the State of Maharashtra, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, and the civic bodies of Bhiwandi-Nizampur, Kalyan-Dombivali, Thane and Navi Mumbai as respondents in the case.
Serves notice
The court issued notices to the State and all municipal corporations and directed Advocate General Ashutosh Kumbhakoni to ensure that all the parties file their reply in two weeks.
Mr. Kumbhakoni said, “We will file our replies detailing what has been done so far across the State for such buildings and measures taken, as well as the steps we propose to take in future.”
The NDFR called off the search and rescue operation on Thursday morning. Among the 41 dead were three toddlers and 18 children from the ages of two to 15. The building was not in the list of dilapidated structures of the Bhiwandi Nizampur Municipal Corporation.
