Entered into contract to operate bridge after persuasion by influential persons: Morbi Bridge Contractor to Gujarat High Court

The private contractor, Ajanta Oreva, which was operating the Morbi bridge in Gujarat at the time of its collapse, told the Gujarat High Court on Wednesday that the State and other authorities cannot pass the buck and lay the blame for the bridge collapse squarely on it [Suo Motu PIL vs State of Gujarat]..The contractor, through Senior Advocate Nirupam Nanavati, told the bench of Chief Justice (CJ) Aravind Kumar and Justice Ashutosh J Shastri that it was not earning any profits from overseeing the suspension bridge but took up the task of operating the bridge after it was persuaded to do by some "influential persons""I am here just to defend myself. I know what the Collector or the authorities of the State have done. They all cannot now pass the buck to me. If they do so then, I will have to speak out," the Senior Advocate submitted. Nanavati further pointed out that his client's only concern was to ensure the heritage bridge was operated properly."This was not a commercial venture. Some highly placed influential persons persuaded me to look after this heritage bridge. So I took over it. I don't want to take names as of now. I did not earn any profit by this bridge. All of it (collapsing) was because of overcrowding," he added. .In his submissions, Nanavati further contended that since his client is being solely blamed for the incident, he must be afforded an opportunity to defend it."I am not taking this as an adversarial litigation. Fortune has not favoured and thus, this disastrous incident took place. Even we are shattered by this tragedy," he told the bench. .The bench was further informed that the contractor, as a goodwill gesture, has already decided to compensate the victims of the tragic incident. "The seven children, who have been orphaned would be looked after by us. We will take their proper care and provide residence, education, other amenities of life, give them jobs either in our firm or get them one," the Senior advocate said. The bench, however, clarified that even if the contractor offers to compensate the victims, the same would not be considered as a ground in his favour in future as the criminal law has been set in motion. "Okay, so you go and pay the compensations first. But let us be very clear, by paying this, it won't save you. It won't mean that the State won't take any action as per law. You will have to face the consequences as per law," CJ Kumar remarked. .During the hearing, the bench also criticised the Morbi Nagar Palika for failing to take any stern action against the contractor, who used the bridge in the absence of any prior permission or approval either by the civic body or the State. "The contractor was threatening you and you did nothing despite being a powerful authority. And now you are saying the government shouldn't dissolve you? What is this attitude?" CJ Kumar remarked. At this, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Devang Vyas for the civic body, told the bench that the contractor on his own opened the bridge for the public without informing the civic body or the State. CJ Kumar responded saying, "But what were you doing then? You are an instrumentality of the State. You just kept quite and did nothing. An inference can be drawn subject to what you say further, but it appears there was collusion between you two.".Meanwhile, Advocate General Kamal Trivedi representing the State, filed an affidavit stating that over 63 bridges across the State are in need of repairs. Of these, 23 bridges require major repairs while 40 need minor ones. AG Trivedi further told the court that the State was actively considering bringing in a uniform policy for inspection of all the bridges across the State. The bench ordered the State to file another affidavit spelling out the steps it has undertaken to bring in this policy. A further directive was issued to the State to ensure that all precautions are taken and the bridges which need repairs are attended to immediately. The matter would be again taken up on February 20.