Bombay HC relief for BMC top rung in Mazgaon building collapse case

BMC chief Sitaram Kunte and additional municipal commissioner Rajiv Jalota, who are charged with negligence under section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the IPC in a building collapse that claimed 61 lives, were granted relief by the Bombay high court on Friday. The court stayed the process issued by the metropolitan court, saying that the officials' petition deserved a final hearing.

A five-storey building in Mazgaon had collapsed last year, in which 61 people died and 30 people were rescued. A private complaint was then filed by Mumbai Municipal Mazdoor Union leader Sharad Rao, who alleged that the senior-most officers were aware of the building's dilapidated condition and had allowed it to collapse.

Currently, 11 BMC officials have been charged with culpable homicide and negligence and are being prosecuted before the magistrate court. A Bhoiwada magistrate court had issued the notice stating that there was prima facie evidence to prosecute Kunte and Jalota. The court had recently ordered the police to carry out further investigations in the case and directed the accused named in the complaint to remain present in court on January 12 next year.

The two senior officers of the corporation had then moved the high court seeking to quash the complaint and stay the process issued against them by the magistrate court. Their advocate argued that process cannot be issued against IAS officers and prior sanction from the government was required to prosecute them. Moreover, they argued that the commissioner cannot be held personally liable for the collapse of each building in the city.

A division bench of Justice Ranjit More and Justice Anuja Prabhudessai held that prima facie the magistrate cannot have issued the process. "The petition deserves a final hearing," the bench said. The matter has now been kept for final hearing on January 11, 2015.