Ahmedabad, Feb 15 (PTI) The Gujarat High Court on Wednesday refused to grant an urgent hearing to Morbi municipality in the state on its plea over the show-cause notice issued by the government in connection with the collapse of the suspension bridge that killed 135 people last year.
The government had issued the notice to the municipality, directing it to reply by February 16 as to why it should not be dissolved for failing to discharge its administrative duties that led to the collapse of the bridge on October 30 last year.
The court of Justice Nirzar Desai refused to allow the petition challenging the deadline set by the state government for the municipality to file its reply over the proposed action under section 263 of the Gujarat Municipalities Act.
The lawyer representing the municipality submitted that the government issued a notice on February 13 and the president of the civic body received it on February 14 with only one day granted to file a reply. A general body meeting was called on Wednesday with the same agenda, he said.
He further said that if the court did not intervene on Wednesday, then nothing will survive in the entire matter.
The court said that the municipality may challenge whatever action the government takes at the relevant point of time.
The government has said that if the municipality fails to reply to the show-case notice by February 16, it will be presumed that it has nothing to say and will proceed with an ex-parte decision to dissolve it.
Meanwhile, the Morbi municipality on Wednesday passed a resolution saying the civic body never gave its approval to hand over the suspension bridge in the town to Oreva Group, a day after the Gujarat government sought a fresh reply to a show-cause notice over the bridge collapse that killed 135 people.
In the general board meeting held during the day to discuss this issue, 41 of 52 councillors of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled municipality submitted a separate reply asserting that majority of the councillors were not aware of the agreement under which the bridge was handed over to Oreva Group by the municipality for maintenance and operation.
Notably, the state government had on December 13 told the Gujarat High Court, which took cognisance of the tragedy and registered a public interest litigation (PIL), that it had decided to dissolve the municipality. The court had also turned down the plea of the civic body members to be impleaded as a party in the case. PTI KA NP NP NP
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