In the suo moto PIL filed in the case of the Vadodara Harni lake boat accident, the Gujarat High Court today struck down the Kotia Projects over skipping appearances despite multiple notices.

Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Pranav Trivedi came down hard on the firm, saying that the court should not be played with. “This is not a chess board,” said the court over the absence of the representatives from the Kotia Projects.

The court had summoned the firm to decide upon the compensation to be paid to the victims’ families, out of the firm’s pockets. The court had also ordered the Collector of Vadodara to file a report with information about the victims and the injured.

The High Court urged the Vadodara Collector to submit the report with all the details including the name, age, address, extent and type of injury of the victims and the injured. 

During the hearing of the writ of public interest in the Vadodara Harni lake boat accident, Vineet Kotia, a retired director of Kotia Project, and his lawyer appeared and tried to defend that he had retired before this incident took place and he has no responsibility for this incident.

However, the Chief Justice directly asked the lawyer if they had a power of attorney to appear from Kotia Projects and file an affidavit.

The High Court made Kotia Projects a party in this case and issued a notice to them a month and a half ago but no appearance has been made by them yet.

Earlier, four members from the firm had appeared before the court, but the court had asked all 13 partners to be present.

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