NT Reporter
Panaji
Taking suo moto cognisance of the Arpora fire tragedy that claimed 25 lives recently, the High Court of Bombay at Goa on Monday directed the state government to file a response in the suo moto PIL, pointing out what corrective measures can be taken and whether any particular officer/authority can be made accountable for avoiding such tragedies in future.
The High Court was hearing a writ petition filed by Pradeep P Ghadi Amonkar and another person seeking reliefs which emanate from a private dispute.
However, during the course of arguments, it was made clear that the petition referred to the fire tragedy that had taken place on the intervening night of 6th and 7th December, 2025 in the nightclub Birch by Romeo Lane where 25 people lost their lives.
The High Court’s division bench comprising Justices Sarang V Kotwal and Ashish S Chavan observed that the petition thus seeks to highlight a much larger issue.
The High Court said, “Considering the above, though the petition was filed between two parties, we are taking suo moto cognisance of this very serious issue. For this purpose, we direct the registry to register a suo moto PIL.”
The High Court appointed advocate Rohit Bras de Sa as amicus curiae.
The High Court said, “Since Rohit Bras de Sa argued the provisions before us extensively, we appoint him to act as the amicus curiae in the suo moto PIL. He shall file a separate memo touching upon all these aspects.
“This would be exhaustive and covering the entire state of Goa including different local bodies and different adjudicating authorities. Such memo shall be filed within two weeks from today. Once the same is filed, the PIL shall be listed for further consideration before this court on 12.01.2026. The present petition be tagged along with the suo moto PIL.”
During the course of arguments, various aspects were pointed out. From the submissions, it appears that at various levels some corrective steps are required to be taken. Both, the counsel appearing for the petitioners as well as the additional government advocate, expressed the same sentiments that steps need to be taken to avoid such tragedies in future.
The High Court observed that from the arguments what could be seen is that the problem lies in the construction of illegal structures and indiscriminate grant of licences. Though there are certain provisions under the local laws, where the local bodies can take action, in many cases they are not implemented and the provisions remain dead letters in the statute books. In certain cases where demolition orders are passed by the local bodies, they are stayed by the appellate authorities. Taking advantage of the stay orders, the commercial activities continue in those illegal structures.
“In some cases, though the structures are illegal, licences are granted for commercial businesses. All this has led to a very serious issue in the state of Goa. It is necessary that the authorities must work together proactively to address these issues rather than shifting the blame on each other,” the High Court observed.
It also said, “Considering the larger issue involved and its cascading effect on the society, all parties must address these issues in a non-adversarial spirit. At this preliminary stage, we notice that it is necessary to assign accountability to the authorities to prevent recurrence of such unfortunate incidents.”
