Gujarat govt's hospital fire probe criticised

The bench comprising of Justice Ashok Bhushan, Justice R Subhash Reddy and Justice MR Shah was hearing a batch of pleas pertaining to the proper treatment of COVID-19 patients and dignified handling of dead bodies. The matter pertaining to fire incidents in Gujrat hospitals were also tagged in this matter.

New Delhi:The Supreme Court on Wednesday lashed out at the Gujrat government for making committees repeatedly probe into Rajkot hospital fire incident in which five people died.

The bench comprising of Justice Ashok Bhushan, Justice R Subhash Reddy and Justice MR Shah was hearing a batch of pleas pertaining to the proper treatment of COVID-19 patients and dignified handling of dead bodies. The matter pertaining to fire incidents in Gujrat hospitals were also tagged in this matter.

Today, the Solicitor General, Tushar Mehta, informed the court that a committee headed by Justice DK Mehta is probing the Rajkot fire incident for which Justice MR Shah pulled him up and asked if the committee does not know in detail about the incident then who will it look into.

Mehta added that there was already such committee and now the third committee has been constituted.

SG said that nothing further could be done and the step has been taken. He also suggested probing Ahmedabad fire incident also by a committee headed by a retired judge.

On fire incidents, the court has sought response from other states as well which the SG will compile and present before the court.

The replies have to be filed by 11th December and the matter will be heard again on 14th December.