PANAJI
The High Court of Bombay at Goa on Thursday issued notice to Pradeep Ghadi Amonkar and four others in a writ petition filed by Surinder Kumar Khosla, an absconding accused in the December 2025 Birch fatal fire case, and directed the Mapusa trial court to defer final arguments in a long-pending civil suit.
The notices are returnable on March 16, 2026 with the Bench of Justice Valmiki Menezes permitting service of notice on the respondents through Speed Post AD, email and WhatsApp, and directed the petitioner -- a UK national -- to file an affidavit of service along with tracking reports and printouts on or before March 13.
The petition has been filed through Khosla’s guardian and another petitioner against Amonkar and four others.
The High Court noted that the respondents are plaintiffs in a Special Civil Suit pending before the Civil Judge Senior Division at Mapusa. The matter had been listed on Thursday for final arguments.
“Considering the reasons stated in the application for adjournment, which was refused by the Trial Court, this petition would require consideration,” the court observed.
Pending such consideration, the High Court requested the trial court to defer the hearing of final arguments to a date after March 30, 2026.
The petitioner has been directed to deposit costs of Rs 25,000 in the High Court registry within a week as a condition for securing the adjournment and to compensate for the delay.
Khosla has been named as an absconding accused in connection with the fatal fire at Birch in December 2025, in which 25 people lost their lives.
A day earlier, the Division Bench of the High Court had dismissed a writ petition filed by Amonkar and Sunil Divker in the December 6-7, 2025 fire, holding that the plea was a private dispute dressed up as public interest and tainted by suppression of material facts. The petition, moved on December 11, 2025 -- five days after the blaze -- alleged violations of fundamental rights, claiming that Khosla, with whom the petitioners had a contractual relationship, had committed widespread violations of planning, land and environmental laws while the authorities failed to act.
Amonkar and Divker allegedly constructed structures on the properties where the fire occurred.
