'Glass door death': PIL in Kerala HC seeks safety glasses in all buildings

KOCHI: The

Kerala high court

on Monday sought the views of the state government on a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking a directive to replace

door glasses

at all public and private buildings with safety glasses.

A division bench comprising chief justice S Manikumar and justice Shaji P Chaly sought the government’s views after considering during admission hearing a PIL filed by Siddique Babu I through advocate A Rajasimhan. The PIL was filed in the backdrop of a woman’s death at a Bank of Baroda branch last month when she collided with the door glass.

• Woman walks into glass door in Kerala bank, succumbs to injuries

Unsafe annealed door glasses are being used on public, private, commercial, and domestic buildings. Following the woman’s death at Perumbavoor,

Ernakulam district collector

issued an order under Disaster Management Act for using toughened glass in commercial buildings. Similar orders were issued by district collectors of Thiruvananthapuram and

Kollam

also, the petition said.

The time limits prescribed in these orders are already over and the district administrations are not implementing them, the petitioner has alleged. As executive orders are issued without any penal provision, they lack mechanism for implementation, it is contended.

Through the PIL, the petitioner is seeking a directive to the government to remove annealed or unsafe glasses from all public and private buildings in a time-bound manner. Use of annealed glasses in buildings should be declared as illegal, the petitioner has demanded. The government should also be directed to ensure that safety glasses are being used in all buildings. The court will consider the case again after two weeks.