The Bombay High Court on Thursday took suo moto cognisance of the building collapse in Bhiwandi in Thane and said that it was a very serious incident where 41 people were declared dead and 25 people had been rescued by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF).
A Division Bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice G.S. Kulkarni was hearing a matter related to a construction in Kalyan Dombivali and the Chief Justice said that the incident in Bhiwandi was very serious.
The 43-year-old Jilani building in the powerloom town of Bhiwandi was around 10 km from Thane. The three-storey building 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 cognisance of the incident, 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.
The court issued notices to the State and all municipal corporations, and directed Advocate General Ashutosh Kumbhakoni to ensure that all parties file their replies 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 NDRF called off its search and rescue operations on Thursday morning. Among the 41 dead are three toddlers and 18 children from the age of two to 15. The building was not in the list of dilapidated structures of the Bhiwandi-Nizampur Municipal Corporation.