In the ongoing hearing of the Rajkot fire incident, Gujarat High Court has slammed both former municipal commissioners, Anand Patel and Amit Arora, emphasising that they should publicly apologise and feel genuine remorse for the tragedy. The fire incident, which occurred on May 25 at the TRP Game Zone, resulted in the deaths of 27 innocent people.

During the hearing of a suo motu public interest petition and a plea filed by advocate Amit Panchal, the division bench of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Pranav Trivedi remarked that the commissioners had effectively closed their eyes to the dangers present at the gaming zone.

The court stated that had these officials exercised personal oversight, the tragic incident could have been prevented, and innocent lives would not have been lost. The judges issued notices to both commissioners, demanding an explanation of how they could evade responsibility in this matter.

Chief Justice Agarwal highlighted the absurdity of the situation, pointing out that one of the commissioners, Amit Arora, attended the inauguration of the gaming zone and even had his photo circulated. She questioned why he failed to recognise the structural hazards and why no alerts were raised regarding safety.

The court further criticised the committee formed to investigate the incident, suggesting that its members who are also officials, were trying to protect their colleagues. The government reiterated that the municipal commissioners had delegated authority to lower-level officers and therefore the commissioners could not be held accountable. However, the Chief Justice dismissed this defence, stating that delegating authority does not absolve them of their responsibilities.

The judges remarked that the TRP Game Zone had been operational for two years, indicating a systemic failure in regulatory oversight.