The Supreme Court on Tuesday listed for November 14 a PIL seeking a judicial probe by a retired apex court judge into the bridge collapse in Gujarat’s Morbi and directions to all states to form committees to assess risks posed by old and dilapidated structures.

“You are very quick,” Chief Justice of India U.U. Lalit remarked when petitioner Vishal Tiwari, an advocate, sought urgent listing of the matter during the morning mentioning time.

To a query from the bench, which included Justices S. Ravindra Bhat and Bela M Trivedi, the petitioner said he was seeking a judicial inquiry into the Morbi bridge collapse. CJI Lalit said: “List on November 14.”

The petitioner cited a number of similar mishaps, including the collapse of the Vivekananda Road flyover in Calcutta in 2016 and the Majerhat bridge cave-in in 2018.

“This country apart from this horrific incident (in Gujarat) has in past also witnessed such demolished public bridges and properties, monuments etc thereby leading to severe consequence of death and permanent injury to individuals due to the lapse and mechanical failure of maintenance, supervision, and administration of assessment of risk,” the petition said.

It cited the collapse of a bridge in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad on January 3, 2020, which Tiwari claimed resulted in the death of 24 people and injuries to 17. On March 14, 2019, a part of a foot overbridge connecting the north end of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus railway station in Mumbai to Badruddin Tyabji Lane collapsed and fell on the road, killing six persons and injuring at least 30, the petition pointed out.

According to Tiwari, the primary question that arises from such situations is who should be prima facie held liable for negligence causing deaths and grievous injuries.

The probe initiated in every such incident has never succeeded as the culprits responsible for such mishaps have not been identified and punished, the petitioner claimed.

The petition urged the top court to “immediately appoint a judicial commission under the supervision of a retired Supreme Court judge to initiate a probe” into the Morbi bridge collapse, issue directions to the state governments to form committees to survey and conduct risk assessment of old and rickety monuments and bridges to ensure environmental viability and safety, and direct every state to constitute a separate “construction incident investigation department” for prompt probes.