Morbi bridge collapse: Supreme Court refuses to cancel bail granted to accused

The Supreme Court has refused to cancel the bail granted by the Gujarat High Court to an accused who had issued tickets to visitors on the day when the Morbi bridge collapsed last year leaving over 140 deadA bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra did not agree to the submissions of the lawyer appearing for the Tragedy Victim Association Morbi that the high court wrongly granted bail to the accusedHe was just selling the tickets the CJI said while dismissing the plea for cancellation of the bail granted to accused Mansukhbhai Valjibhai Topia by the high court on June 9We are not inclined to entertain the Special Leave Petitions under Article 136 of the Constitution The Special Leave Petitions are accordingly dismissed the bench said in its order on MondayThe Gujarat High Court had taken note of the fact that the probe was over and the charge sheet was already filedSince trial will take its own time to conclude the presence of the applicant is not required in judicial custody as well as the applicant was the ticket issuing person hired by the company and therefore I am of the opinion that this is a fit case to exercise the discretion and enlarge the applicant on regular bai the high court judge had saidOn November 21 last year the top court had termed as an enormous tragedy the Morbi bridge collapse that had claimed 141 lives and asked the Gujarat High Court to periodically monitor the probe and other aspects including rehabilitation and award of dignified compensation to the victimsIt had however turned down the submissions that a Commission of Inquiry be appointed to ensure that incidents like the Morbi collapse do not happen againThe top court had refused to entertain the pleas including a PIL seeking an independent probe into the incident saying the division bench headed by the Gujarat High Court Chief Justice has already taken a suo motuon its own note of the tragedy and has passed several ordersAs many as 141 persons including 47 children are reported to have perished in the Morbi bridge collapse Several aspects of the matter would require obtaining periodical responses from the officials of the state and Nagarpalika in order that the court is apprised of the antecedent facts leading up to the collapse of the bridge as well as the subsequent developments bearing on relief and rehabilitation and compensation it had saidThe Britishera bridge on the Machchhu river in Morbi in Gujarat collapsed on October 30 last year leaving 141 people deadThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever