Gujarat HC’s directions over 23 years hanging fire

AHMEDABAD: The tragic death of eight patients in a horror blaze at Shrey Hospital in Navrangpura on Thursday once again proved that fire prevention has never been an emergency issue for city administrators. A tokenist gesture was made when the word ‘emergency’ was used to rechristen the fire brigade as ‘Ahmedabad Fire & Emergency Services’ a few years ago.
For 23 years, the Gujarat high court has been directing the government to follow certain norms to prevent fire tragedies. But the directions do not seem to have borne any fruit. The 22 young lives lost last year in Surat were just another testimony of the disregard for the court’s numerous reminders in various litigations over the past two decades.

Ahmedabad municipal commissioners have over the years filed six affidavits in the high court and two affidavits in the Supreme Court promising strict compliance with fire safety norms.
Numerous PILs were filed by Lok Adhikar Sangh, Shivlal Purohit, Prakash Nambiar and others to prevent fire tragedies. When pressure mounted, the state government came up with the Gujarat Fire Prevention & Life Safety Measures Act in 2013. The rules were not framed for a year. It took yet another litigation in the high court in 2015 for its implementation.
The implementation of the new law, however, did not bring any relief for the cities in Gujarat. Municipal corporation areas were exempted from the new law. The penal measures introduced were limited to villages and small towns only, said a lawyer involved in this litigation since the beginning.
In 2009, 2012, and 2016, the city’s fire department went on a sealing overdrive, when the HC asked tough questions over fire safety norms. During the last such drive in 2016, court complexes and various hospitals were named in the defaulters’ list. The civic body’s exercise to review fire safety measures and fire NOCs came once again under HC scrutiny in a contempt of court petition, which is pending in the court for the past five years.