The Bombay High Court on Thursday asked why the previous and present governments in Maharashtra did not get the time to form a committee to implement fire safety rules though it reportedly issued 400-odd government resolutions (GRs) recently. A bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and MS Karnik directed the state government to file an affidavit detailing the steps it had taken to constitute such a committee and implement fire safety norms in vulnerable buildings since previous orders passed on April 11 this year.

The court's direction came after state counsel Hiten Venegaonkar said the government was in the process of including the safety draft rules framed in 2009 in the new Development Control and Planning Regulations (DCPR).