Kamala Mills fire: Bombay high court tells BMC to file report on safety recommendations

Acting on a public interest litigation filed by former Mumbai police commissioner Julio Rebeiro, a division bench of chief justice Naresh Patil and justice MS Karnik also directed the civic body to consider making an online portal that provided detailed information about restaurants

The Bombay high court on Thursday directed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to file a report on the status of implementation of the recommendations made by a court-appointed committee after the December 2017 fire in Kamala Mills compound that resulted in the death of 14 people.

On December 29, a fire broke out in rooftop resto-bar Mojo’s Bistro and spread to the neighbouring 1Above at Kamala Mills in Lower Parel, killing 14 people and injuring 55 others.(Anshuman Poyrekar/HT Photo)

Acting on a public interest litigation filed by former Mumbai police commissioner Julio Rebeiro, a division bench of chief justice Naresh Patil and justice MS Karnik also directed the civic body to consider making an online portal that provided detailed information about restaurants, especially the status of their compliance with various rules and regulations, including those related to fire safety, available to citizens.

According to the judges, especially as the younger generation chooses restaurants after researching online, such a platform if provided by the BMC would be helpful.

Rebeiro had approached the court seeking a comprehensive fire-safety audit of every eatery in Mumbai and also setting up a judicial commission to look into the illegalities at Kamala Mills compound. Acting on his PIL, the court appointed a three-member committee, headed by justice Arvind Savant, former chief justice of the Kerala high court, to investigate the fire, as also the purported illegalities committed by the mill owners.

Accordingly, the committee filed its report, indicting the mill owners for illegalities within the compound and concluded that the reason for the fire was a burning segri used to serve hookah on one of the roof-top restaurants.

Rebeiro’s counsel, advocate Sujay Kantawala, said the three-member committee has made several recommendations, suggesting amendments to fire-safety related rules and regulations, and urged the court to direct the civic body to file the status report. The bench then directed the civic body to file the report in two weeks.

Senior advocate Anil Sakhare, who represented the BMC, said steps were being taken by the BMC to amend existing rules and regulations and frame new ones, as suggested by the committee.