Kerala HC seeks state govt's views on PIL seeking safety glasses in public, private buildings

The Kerala High Court on Monday sought the views of the state government on a PIL seeking a directive to replace door glasses at all public and private buildings with safety glasses.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice S Mkumar and Justice Shaji P Chaly sought the government's views after considering during admission hearing a PIL filed by Siddique Babu through advocate A Rajasimhan.

The PIL was filed in the backdrop of a woman's death at a Bank of Baroda branch last month when she collided with the door glass.

"Unsafe annealed door glasses are being used on public, private, commercial, and domestic buildings. Following the woman's death at Perumbavoor, Ernakulam district collector issued an order under the Disaster Management Act for using toughened glass in commercial buildings. Similar orders were issued by district collectors of Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam also," the petition said.

The time limits prescribed in these orders are already over and the district administrations are not implementing them, the petitioner has alleged.

As executive orders are issued without any penal provision, they lack a mechsm for implementation, it said.

Through the PIL, the petitioner is seeking a directive to the government to remove annealed or unsafe glasses from all public and private buildings in a time-bound manner.

The petitioner has demanded that use of annealed glasses in buildings should be declared as illegal.

The government should also be directed to ensure that safety glasses are being used in all buildings. The court will consider the case again after two weeks.

( With inputs from ANI )