Gujarat High Court: In a suo motu writ petition on Morbi bridge collapse, the Division Bench of Sunita Agarwal, CJ and Pranav Trivedi, J. directed that an arrangement be made for execution of a written instrument with individual beneficiaries, outlining the benefits to which they are entitled to.
The Court passed the said order after noting that, while forming different categories of victims as beneficiaries entitling them for the benefits, such as monthly allowance of Rs.12000/- for their daily expenses/ needs, few widows were left out who had lost the lone earning member of their family, in the incident of Morbi bridge collapse. The Court also noted that there are several physically disabled persons, who lost their well-paid jobs on account of the disability they face as a result of grievous injury suffered in the incident. It was also pointed out that many of the victims were not aware of the benefits to which they are entitled to under various orders passed by the Court and also of the compensation amount deposited in fixed deposit by the District Legal Services Authority, Morbi.
Similarly, it was also pointed that the victims were not aware of the arrangements made for “orphan children” and “children with single parent” including their educational expenses till they complete college education, which may include the expenses of a professional course.
The Court said that for eight young girl victims, the respondent- company shall also bear their marriage expenses, which must be included in the benefits to be provided by the Trust, namely, Sahaj Seva Parivar, Morbi registered under the directions of the Court, as and when the exigency arises.
For execution of written instrument, in case of minor, the Court directed that the signatory shall be either the natural guardian of the minor or an authorised guardian, in case of absence of natural guardian.
Further, the Court directed that the list of beneficiaries must include those victims who were already widow and have lost lone earning member of their family. The physically disabled victims shall be accommodated in a well-paid job by the respondent- Company commensurate to their capability and suitability. The company shall make arrangement for one of the victims suffering from locomotive disability as pointed out in the report of the learned Court Commissioner and also for another victim, who is facing severe spine injury and resultantly mental illness.
Regarding the corpus created by the respondent-company with the Trust, namely Sahaj Seva Parivar, Morbi, the Court noted that the corpus of Rs. 15 lakhs were meagre to meet any exigencies and there is a need to enhance the corpus, hence, the Court directed that Rs. 10 lakhs more be deposited in the corpus for creating it to Rs. 25 lakhs within the period of one month from the date of order.
[Suo Motu v. State of Gujarat, R/Writ Petition (PIL) No. 87 of 2022, decided on: 05-09-2024]
