In a hearing of a suo moto public interest litigation (PIL) on this year’s tragic boat accident in Harni Lake, the Gujarat High Court has held the then Vadodara Municipal Commissioner directly responsible for the loss of the lives of 12 children and two teachers.

The divisional bench, comprising Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Aniruddha P Mayee, directed the principal secretary of Gujarat’s urban development and urban housing departments to initiate a departmental inquiry against the then Municipal Commissioner of Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) and has asked for a report to be submitted to the court within two months.

This is purported to be the first instance of the HC ordering a departmental inquiry against a civic body chief in a suo moto case.

High Court’s statements on the Harni Lake tragedy

The initial probe revealed that the lake’s contract was awarded on a lease for 33 years at a meagre price to Kotia Projects, a company without any prior experience.

Moreover, the contractor was declared ineligible by the VMC itself due to a lack of financial stability in September 2015 but was awarded the contract two months later.

The Municipal Commissioner had given in-principle approval to the first contract, but the Standing Committee had rejected its proposal. Within two months, tenders were submitted by two contractors for the second time, out of which Kotia Projects was awarded the contract.

Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal raised some critical questions over this: “What happened in two months that a person who was earlier disqualified due to lack of financial capacity and had zero turnover was considered eligible and was awarded the contract directly? How did the contractor become eligible in two months? How did the financial stability of Kotia Projects increase in two months?”

However, neither the VMC nor the authorities had a satisfactory answer to these questions raised by the High Court.

Also read:

Vadodara Harni Lake case: SIT investigation concludes with 2,819-page chargesheet

Who is to blame in the Harni Lake tragedy that took so many lives?

Harni Lake tragedy: Dipen Shah and Dharmil Shah again sent to judicial custody