Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Wednesday refused to grant an oral prayer, while hearing a PIL related to fire safety, to temporarily restrain the Chief Fire Officer (CFO) from granting any No Objection Certificate (NOC) for construction of buildings, using his discretionary power.
The HC was hearing a PIL by advocates Abha Singh and Aditya Pratap Singh seeking enforcement of the safety regulations in buildings vulnerable to man-made disasters.
During the hearing on Wednesday, state advocate Jyoti Chavan submitted that an affidavit has been filed stating that on March 15, the State Government issued a notice under the MRTP Act to carry out modification to add new provision 6A for special safety control Regulations for building vulnerable to man made disasters. The modification will be made in the Development Control and Promotion Regulation 2034 (DCPR 2034).
Chavan added that the state has called for objections and suggestions. “Petitioners can give their objections to the same,” Chavan said. She said it would take four-six weeks to complete the process of public hearings and then to publish the notification.
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Pratap then urged the court to, meanwhile, restrain the CFO from granting NOCs for building constructions. “CFO should not accept any building plan which does not show movement of fire tenders around the building. Also, he should not approve building plans till mandatory open spaces around buildings are not complied with,’ Pratap argued.
Pratap pointed out that these days, while issuing NOC, the fire department gives relaxations in buildings which do not have open spaces around it. Such open spaces are required where people can go in case of fire in buildings.
The court, however, refused to grant such a relief to the petitioner. “Let that process (public hearing) be complete for the finalisation of notification. Then we will see,” a bench of Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya and Justice Amit Borkar said.
The bench clarified that it will deal with the issue after the finalisation of the fire safety rules, and kept the matter for hearing in September.
