HC takes suo motu cognisance in Birch inferno

Panaji: The Bombay high court on Monday directed the registration of a suo motu PIL in the wake of the fire that killed 25 at an Arpora nightclub. This was to look into the larger issue of commercial operations being allowed in illegal structures in the state.

The division bench, comprising Justices Sarang V Kotwal and Ashish S Chavan, told state govt to file a response in the suo motu PIL, pointing out what corrective measures can be taken and whether any particular officer or authority can be made accountable for avoiding such tragedies in the future.


From the arguments before it, the high court observed 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”, the high court said.

“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,” the high court said, adding that “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. Considering the larger issue involved and its cascading effect on society, all parties must address these issues in a non-adversarial spirit,” the court said. “At this preliminary stage, we notice that it is necessary to assign accountability to the authorities to prevent the recurrence of such unfortunate incidents.”

The high court appointed advocate Rohit Bras de Sa as amicus curiae and said that though the petition was filed between two parties, we are taking suo motu cognisance of this very serious issue. “For this purpose, we direct the registry to register a suo motu PIL,” the high court said.

The high court passed the order while hearing a petition by Pradeep Amonkar and Sunil Divker seeking implementation of demolition orders against Birch by Romeo Lane structures and quashing and setting aside the Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority order of Nov 21, 2025, which discharged the show cause notice to Surinder Kumar Khosla, dropping proceedings and concluding that it has no jurisdiction in the matter.