Kamala mills fire institutional failure of BMC, excise dept: Bombay HC

The fire at the Kamala Mills compound in Mumbai on December 29 killed 14 people. (File Photo)

The Bombay High Court, recently seeking an independent committee to probe the Kamala Mills fire incident, has said that considering the scale of violation of regulations, it is impossible to accept it could have occurred without connivance of civic officials. The court held that this incident “is in fact institutional failure of the municipal corporation as well as the state excise department.”

A division bench of Justices RM Borde and RG Ketkar had, on Friday, ordered that a three-member independent committee be set up under the chairmanship of a retired High Court judge to probe the fire incident in which 14 persons were killed and over 30 others injured after a fire broke out at two restaurants — 1 Above and Mojo Bistro — at the Kamala Mills compound in central Mumbai on December 29.

The bench was hearing a public interest litigation filed by former top cop Julio Ribiero seeking a judicial inquiry. “The loss of life is attributable to illegal activities of the operators of the restaurants in connivance with the owners of Kamala Mills as well as the authorities who are responsible to ensure observance of regulations and licencing norms,” the court said. “Considering the scale of violation of rules and regulations, it cannot be visualised that those can occur without the knowledge of the local authority or without any connivance of civic body officials,” the order said. The bench noted that prima facie, the involvement of civic body officials and the government cannot be ruled out.

The bench added that it has also perused the roof top restaurants policy submitted by the corporation. “However, we cannot be unmindful of the shocking incident taking a toll of 14 lives and we are of the view that the policy adopted by the corporation needs to be implemented with a lot of circumspection,” the order said. The court has posted the petition for hearing on February 23.

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