Gujarat HC lets Rajkot’s ex-municipal chiefs off the hook for TRP Game Zone

AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat high court has put to rest the issue of the direct involvement of Rajjot’s two former municipal commissioners in the illegal setting up of the TRP Game Zone where a fire killed 27 people in May this year.
“…we have reached at the conclusion that all proceedings pertaining to the coming up of the TRP Game Zone was conducted illegally at the level of the Town Planning Officer and at no stage of the proceedings, it seems that the file had travelled to the level of the Municipal Commissioners,” a bench of chief justice Sunita Agarwal and justice Pranav Trivedi said in its order.
The high court’s order, dated October 25, comes after a detailed examination of original documents and personal affidavits of the two civil servants. The order was recently uploaded to the high court’s website.
The court had previously expressed apprehensions that there was an attempt to shield the top bureaucrats and blame subordinate officers for allowing the TRP Game Zone to come up without the necessary approvals.
Former municipal commissioner Amit Arora, who held the position from June 2021 to April 2023, said that while he visited the location for a colleague’s birthday celebration, he would have taken “strictest possible action” had he known about the facility’s illegal operation. Anand Babulal Patel, who was municipal commission between April 2023 and May 2024, expressed “remorse in letter and spirit” for the unfortunate incident.
“With this, we find it fit and proper to put at rest the issue pertaining to the involvement of the Municipal Commissioners posted at relevant point of time at the Rajkot Municipal Corporation in the upcoming of the TRP Game Zone illegally,” the court said in its order addressing a batch of petitions concerning fire safety in municipal corporation areas across Gujarat. This includes a suo motu case initiated by the court after a devastating fire on May 25 killed 27 people, including four children, in Rajkot.
“However, the question about the grant of compensation to the victims out of the pocket of the erring officials is still alive and the same would be considered as and when the occasion arises,” the court added.
On the fire safety measures taken in buildings across Gujarat, the court expressed concern about high-rise buildings in major cities and specifically questioned the fire-fighting capabilities of municipal corporations in Rajkot, Surat, Ahmedabad, and Vadodara, where buildings up to 150 meters (approximately 45 storeys) have been permitted.
The order also referred to progress made in school safety measures across the state. According to the affidavit filed by the education department, 338 schools have successfully become fire-compliant out of the 771 identified schools requiring compliance. The remaining 433 schools are currently in the process of achieving compliance. Additionally, the department has conducted mock drills in 50,699 schools and provided fire safety training to nearly 297,212 staff members as part of its comprehensive safety initiative.
The court will next hear the case on December 20 to address remaining issues, including a detailed timeline for completing fire department recruitment across eight municipal corporations to address current staffing shortages.
In September, the high court during a hearing had observed that the city’s municipal commissioner could not shirk responsibility by claiming that he had “delegated his duties and powers” to a subordinate who failed to inform him about the incident.