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HC to appoint lawyers to inspect protective grilles on manholes
The Bombay High Court will appoint advocates to check if protective grilles have been installed on all manholes in Mumbai, following a contempt petition. The court stated that poor conditions of roads and open manholes should not be considered accidents, but man-made disasters. The court also criticized the municipal corporations for failing to comply with previous orders to ensure proper road conditions. The corporations have been directed to file affidavits detailing the steps taken to make roads pothole-free. The court also criticized the state government for delaying the handover of roads to the corporations.
MUMBAI: The Bombay high court (HC) on Friday said it will appoint advocates to visit each civic ward in the city along with the assistant commissioners of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and check if protective grilles have been installed on all manholes.
During the hearing attended by all six civic chiefs from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), the division bench of chief justice DK Upadhyay and justice Arif Doctor said if a pedestrian or a cyclist falls and dies due to poor condition of the road or an open manhole, it cannot be termed an accident, it is a man-made disaster.
“You not only have a constitutional duty under Article 21 (to protect the lives of citizens) but also a statutory obligation,” the court said.
The court was hearing a contempt petition filed by advocate Ruju Thakker, seeking action against civic bodies for failing to comply with orders issued by the high court in 2018 for ensuring that roads are properly surfaced, and footpaths are well-maintained.
After the petitioner’s lawyer pointed out several instances wherein bikers lost their lives due to potholes in and around Mumbai, the court had summoned civic chiefs of Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai, Kalyan – Dombivali, Mira Bhayandar, Vasai Virar and the metropolitan commissioner to the court on Friday “to explain as to why they should not be made liable for disobedience and non-compliance of the 2018 (HC) orders.”
In the 2018 orders, the HC had observed that it shall be the responsibility of the corporations to keep the streets and footways properly levelled and surfaced and further ensure that potholes and ditches are properly filled in, and categorically made it clear “if any untoward incident results in loss of life or limb, the respective municipal commissioner, metropolitan commissioner, chief engineer shall be held personally responsible.”
Pursuant to the direction all the civic chiefs and the metropolitan commissioner on Friday attended the court which directed them to file exhaustive affidavits detailing the steps they had taken to ensure that all roads are made potholes free.
During the hearing, BMC’s counsel, senior advocate Anil Sakhare, informed the court that this year the civic authority had received 59,533 complaints regarding potholes and civic employees have attended 59,213 of the same.
Sakhare informed the court that BMC took over Eastern Express Highway, Western Express Highway and the Eastern Freeway in November 2022 and had carried out pre-monsoon works on these major arterial roads and thus ensured that these roads are pothole-free.
The civic body also informed the bench that of the total 2,050 km of roads in Mumbai which are in its possession, 1,148 km of roads are already concretised, and work orders are being issued for the concretisation of 504 km of roads and the works are expected to be completed by May end next year. Of the balance 398 km of asphalt roads, stretches running into 112 km are resurfaced, the BMC claimed. The civic body also claimed that all the roads in Mumbai will be concretised in the next three years and thereafter the city will be pothole-free.
The judges were, however, unimpressed by the figures and said the fact remains that roads are still in poor condition and asked why roads cannot withstand rain.
The judges also rapped the state government for sitting over the proposal sent by the BMC to hand over all the roads in Mumbai to it. Around 175 km of roads in Mumbai lie with other agencies of the state government.
“It was a simple executive decision. Why is it taking so long,” the judges asked the state government lawyer. “Providing motorable safe roads is as much your responsibility as it is of the corporations. The menace continues even today,” the court said.
