Rajkot Game Zone fire: Gujarat HC gives clean chit to 2 former RMC commissioners
Two Rajkot municipal commissioners – Anand Babulal Patel, who was in charge of the Rajkot Municipal Corporation (RMC) from April 2023 to May 2024, and Amit Arora, in charge of the civic body from June 2021 to April 2023 – were directed by the court to file affidavits
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The bench has been hearing a suo motu public interest litigation (PIL) in the matter since May 26, a day after the TRP Game Zone fire. (Express Archives) The Gujarat High Court recently gave a clean chit to two former municipal commissioners in the illegal running of the TRP Game Zone in Rajkot. A fire at the TRP Game Zone killed 27 people in May.
The division bench of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Pranav Trivedi concluded on October 25 that “all proceedings pertaining to the coming up of the TRP Game Zone was conducted illegally at the level of Town Planning Officer and at no stage of the proceedings, it seems that file had travelled to the level of the Municipal Commissioners (two herein) posted at different point of time in the Municipal Corporation, Rajkot.”
The bench has been hearing a suo motu public interest litigation (PIL) in the matter since May 26, a day after the TRP Game Zone fire.
It, however, went on to clarify that the issue of granting compensation to the victims from the pocket of the erring officials “is still alive and the same would be considered as and when the occasion arises.”
Two Rajkot municipal commissioners – Anand Babulal Patel, who was in charge of the Rajkot Municipal Corporation (RMC) from April 2023 to May 2024, and Amit Arora, in charge of the civic body from June 2021 to April 2023 – were directed by the court to file affidavits.
The court recorded that Patel submitted “he has discharged his duties to the best of his abilities and yet occurrence of the incident has taken a personal toll on him.”
Arora, too, submitted that he discharged his duties diligently during his tenure, while accepting that he visited the location with his wife and daughter “to attend the birthday celebration of a colleague which later became fire-engulfed TRP Game Zone.”
“However, the officer (Arora) states that had he known that the TRP Game Zone was operating without permission, he would have taken (the) strictest possible action against the owners/operators concerned. The officer has expressed remorse for the incident, which… engulfed TRP Game Zone at Rajkot on 25.05.2024,” the court noted.
Notably, in June, the high court, while hearing the issue, had refused to accept the RMC’s assertion that the municipal commissioners were never made aware of the structures at TRP Game Zone, observing that such a response “cannot be believed” as the structure that had been set up “cannot be considered to be an invisible structure”. The court at the time had further observed that it is “at least evident that the municipal commissioners of RMC who were holding charge during the erection of the building-in-question, i.e. the TRP gaming zone, and occupation and use thereof, have failed to discharge their duties and responsibilities.”
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