Seal hospitals violating fire safety rules says Gujarat High court – ET HealthWorld

AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat high court on Thursday directed the state government and all other authorities concerned to take immediate steps to seal those hospital buildings which do not comply with fire safety rules or possess valid building use (BU) permission or are constructed in violation of the approved plan.

The high court has sought a report on the condition of private hospital buildings across the state, whether they followed the earlier high court order to prevent fire. By July 22 when the authorities are to submit their reports, the HC has directed the state government ensure implementation of the earlier high court order.

Demanding a report on the fire on June 25 in Dev Complex, which houses four hospitals, and on what action was taken in this regard and on whom accountability is to be fixed for the incident, the bench of Chief Justice Aravind Kumar and Justice Ashutosh Shastri ordered the state authorities, municipal corporations and municipalities to strictly implement a high court order passed on December 15, 2020, to create arrangements and to take measures to prevent fires in hospitals. One of the directions was to immediately remove glass facades of hospital buildings.

The issue of glass facade was raised by petitioner advocate Amit Panchal, who has sought action for the fire incident in Dev Complex and complained that despite repeated directions, the hospital buildings are not fire safety rule compliant. He submitted that because of the glass facade, smoke did not come out of the building and more than 60 persons were stuck inside. He pointed at the earlier HC direction for removal of glass facade and other 10 instructions for ICU, which were vulnerable to fire during the Covid-19 pandemic times.

The state government submitted that it has followed the HC directions issued in December 2020 in public hospitals. This led the HC to say, “For private hospitals, which outnumber government hospitals, there are no material available on record which would suggest or indicate as to how the said (HC) order has been implemented. Hence, Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation would also be required to place on record a report on hospitals located in highrise buildings and how the order has been implemented.”

The judges questioned existence of hospitals in commercial buildings, particularly when restaurants are also housed in the same building.

The court said that preventing recurrence of fire incident is of paramount importance.

“Until and unless stringent action is taken against those buildings which are not fire compliant, these incidents would occur in future and until and unless deterrent action is taken against such erring persons, such incidents may go unnoticed many a time. Hence, we direct the state and its instrumentalities to take immediate steps to seal such buildings which do not complying with statutory requirement of fire act or which do not possess BU permission or having been constructed in utter violation of approved plans,” the court ordered.