Morbi bridge collapse: PIL filed in Supreme Court seeking ex-judge-led probe

The public interest litigation filed by a lawyer also sought a detailed safety audit of all old public structures across the country.

Vishal Tiwari filed the PIL on Monday and also demanded formation of a permanent disaster probe team in the states which could promptly attend to such tragedies.

The PIL sought direction to the Union of India (UOI) and the State Governments to form a committee to survey and conduct assessment of the risk of old and risky monuments, bridges to ensure environmental viability and safety.

It pleaded for a direction to the State Governments to Constitute in their respective States -- Construction Incident Investigation Department (CIID) - so that prompt investigation could be initiated whenever such incidents occur.

The plea also sought that the CIID shall also have duty to access and inquire about the quality and safety of any public construction taking place.

As per reports over 140 people have lost their lives and many are still missing after the British-era suspension bridge in Morbi town of Saurashtra region in Gujarat came crashing down on Sunday evening.

Tiwari said that such incidents depict the serious condition of responsibility lapse, negligence by the government authorities, and hence filed the PIL.

"Such incident prima facie depicts the serious condition of responsibility, lapse, negligence, failure of administration, and unfaithful duty of care towards 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.

He further stated in his PIL that from 1989 Bihar-Banmankhi Express train bogey accident tragedy, leading to 500 casualties, to Morbi bridge failure, it is clear that nothing in the country's administration has changed wherein such actions could have been avoided by showing reasonable duty of care and upfront repair and development activity.

The SC should impose absolute liability on the Central and State Government to put public interest at large and work in accordance with public welfare.

Many times, there are reports of casualties, due to overcrowding and lack of management by the administration and its municipal bodies thereby causing severe public casualties, his plea said.

He pleaded the top court to pass appropriate orders and directions to the authorities concerned to put an end to such a failure of administration.