Vadodara Boat Tragedy: Gujarat High pulls up Civic Body for inaction

The Gujarat High Court on Monday pulled up the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) for the lack of supervision on its part over the private contractor who was looking after the boating activities in Harni Lake in which 14 persons (12 students and 2 teachers) died after a boat capsized on January 18 [Re: 12 students and 2 teachers drown in Harni Lake]..A division bench of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Aniruddha Mayee issued a notice to the VMC Commissioner and ordered him to file an affidavit spelling out what the civic body did prior to the incident. Advocate Gurusharan Virk appearing for VMC told the bench that the civic body has taken some action but even before he could complete his submission, Chief Justice Agarwal said, "You may have taken 100 collective measures after this incident. But we are not on what you did after the incident. We want to know how you were operating prior to the incident. We find there was complete lack of supervision on your part because you slept after giving contract to a private person."The Court said that the civic body cannot be expected to give away any public utility on contract and then sleep and not supervise the private entities engaged to look after the services. "Aren't the civic bodies checking if the private contractors are following the norms or not? These water bodies are to be looked after the corporation. We aren't against the use of such bodies for amusement but the civic bodies need to keep a check," the bench remarked. The observations were made after Advocate General Kamal Trivedi submitted an affidavit stating how the incident occured, the immediate rescue operations of the government etc. AG Trivedi told the bench that the initial contract between the contractor and the VMC was signed in 2017. "We want to know the terms of the contract. All this is just an eyewash," the bench observed. .Meanwhile, AG Trivedi told the bench that the State has issued instructions to all the corporations to immediately stop all such amusement activities in water bodies. Taking the submission on record, the bench said, "The State, to avoid future such instances, has now woke up and has called for reports from all civic bodies and has also instructed to stop such activities."The bench further expanded the scope of the petition, saying, "We propose to expand the scope from this lake to all water bodies. Our main aim is people may have fun but with safety and whatever safety measures are required that must be taken care of.".During the hearing, senior advocate Trusha Patel, who was appointed as an amicus to assist the court, submitted her suggestions which included proper compensation to the kin of the deceased students and teachers. She submitted that even the contractor who was booked in the case, must be made liable to pay compensation to the victims' families. Further, she submitted that the State could consider granting government jobs to the family members of the deceased. To this, Chief Justice Agarwal responded, "Though they were future of family and family had aspirations but a government establishment job cannot be given like this. Even the Contractor in this case is not some big company that he could provide some kind of jobs to the family members.".The Gujarat High Court Advocates' Association (GHCAA) President Brijesh Trivedi, who was also present in court, sought to be heard in the case stating that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government was trying to protect the wrong doers. Irked over this submission, the Chief Justice made it clear that she would not allow her court to be a platform for politics. "Mind your language. You are in a court of law. An advocate must know his limits in the court. If you want to continue this, we will not let you speak in our court. You are the President of the Bar Association, people should look upto you, when you come to argue here."The Chief Justice added, "This is not your demonstration manch. Bahar jaake jo bolna hai boliye, but not in this court. You don't make it a political issue. You have taken name of a political party. We will reject your application for intervention."The advocate, however, later assured the bench that he will not repeat the same..The Chief Justice also said that she herself had visited such boating sites twice and realised only after the instant incident that she was not given life jackets. "After this incident I realised I too have gone without life jacket. They took the Chief Justice also without life jacket. I could have drowned in the lake. But see the way we are... Unless and until such an incident occurs everybody thinks that this will never happen. We always live in denial mode," the bench underscored. It then said it will pass an order and give a date for next hearing.