MK Stalin files petition in high court against Regupathi panel report

Sixty-one workers from Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha were killed and several others injured in the multi-storeyed building collapse onJune 28 last year.

In the petition, Stalin, Kolathur MLA, submitted that a G.O. dated July 3, 2014, requested the one-man commission to inquire into all aspects, causes and circumstances leading to the collapse of the building and to fix responsibility on those whose negligence caused the tragedy.

The order also directed the commission to recommend remedial measures to be taken to avoid recurrence of such mishaps.

Advocate P. Wilson, petitioner's counsel, said the commission's report was silent on several intriguing issues. The report, he argued, was a reflection of the final report of the Special Investigation Team filed before the Magistrate on August 25, 2014. The commission failed to go into Town Planning Laws, especially the Development Regulations of Second Master Plan.

“The report is framed to protect highly-placed officials and the minister for housing, who is the chairman of the high rise committee. The commission has not checked the details of the structural plan of the building in accordance with the National Building Code,” counsel said.

Pointing out several other lapses, Wilson said the report was a cover-up exercise for the illegalities committed by highly-placed officials, CMDA, local bodies and minister. The First bench of Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice T.S. Sivagnanam, before which the matter came up for hearing, has directed any authority desirous of responding to the petition to do so in three weeks.