Yesterday, the Supreme Court rejected a petition challenging verdict of the Gujarat High Court, granting bail to Mansukhbhai Valjibhai Topia, who was the ticket issuing person at the Morbi bridge on the day it collapsed on October 30 last year resulting in the death of around 135 persons.

A bench comprising CJI DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Mishra was hearing a petition filed by Tragedy Victim Association, Morbi.

"We are not inclined to entertain the Special Leave Petitions under Article 136 of the Constitution", the bench observed.

In the previous hearing on 6th June, Gujarat High Court, noted that the investigation was already done and a chargesheet was also filed. So, it was of the opinion that continued judicial custody was not required.

The High Court took into account the fact that the accused was a ticket-issuing personnel employed by a company. So, it exercised its discretion to grant regular bail to the accused regular bail.

 “Since 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 bail. “ the bench said.

The counsel for the accused submit before the court that the accused jumped into the river to save people and suffered injuries.  He acknowledged that it was his duty to manage the crowd. But he asserted that the crowd was unprecedented and had gone out of control in festival season.

Contrary, counsel of the state had opposed the bail , during the hearing the counsel submitted that the accused had issued an excessive number of tickets without conducting proper assessments of the hanging bridge's strength, stability, and capacity.

The state firmly argued that his negligence played a pivotal role in the incident. They had emphasized that no leniency must be shown since doing so would undermine the gravity of the alleged negligence and the concerns of public safety.

Advocate Vishal Tiwari filed a petition in the Supreme Court for the formation of a Judicial Commission to investigate the Morbi Bridge collapse in Gujarat, to be led by a retired Supreme Court judge. On mentioning, the CJI ordered that the case be heard on November 14.