PIL seeks safety glass in buildings

Kochi: A high court division bench of Chief Justice S Manikumar and Justice Shaji P Chaly on Monday sought the views of the state government on a PIL seeking a directive to replace door glasses at all public and private buildings with safety glasses.

The PIL was filed by Siddique Babu I through advocate A Rajasimhan in the backdrop of a woman’s death at a Bank of Baroda branch last month when she collided with a door glass.

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, the petition said.

Such executive orders are issued without any penal provision and they lack mechanism for implementation, it is contended. The court will consider the case again after two weeks.