Mumbai, Aug. 27 -- The Bombay high court has directed municipal corporations and other planning authorities across Maharashtra to halt work at construction sites if they are found violating the newly mandated safety norms for under-construction high-rise buildings. The court also directed civic bodies to initiate immediate civil and criminal action by treating violations as building permission breaches. The division bench of justice Girish Kulkarni and justice Arif Doctor, in an order passed on Friday, said, "any breach of such measures or requirements in the report of the expert committee, shall be held to be violation of the building permission, and shall entail consequences of breach of such development permission, liable for all civil and criminal actions, as the law would mandate." Raising concerns over the safety measures that need to be adopted in the construction of high-rise buildings, the court had on August 7 appointed an expert safety committee, which submitted a report on August 12, titled "Special Safety Control Recommendations for Working at Heights During High Rise Construction". These safety norms have been put in place after a notification by the Urban Development Department on Friday in view of deaths or injuries to people on by objects falling from under-construction buildings. The expert committee report also considers the safety of people who are not directly involved in the construction project but live nearby and require protection from objects falling from high-rise constructions.The court observed that it needs to be implemented in "letter and spirit" by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) "The planning authorities are directed to keep a special vigil on such high-rise constructions and strict implementation of the norms and measures as set out by the expert committee. In the event of any breach of such compliance, immediate action shall be initiated, including issuance of stop-work notices, as this would be paramount, considering the safety of human lives"....