Mumbai News: HC Summons 6 Municipal Commissioners In Potholes Contempt Plea

Mumbai: Observing that no action will be taken unless senior officials are made personally liable, the Bombay High court on Wednesday summoned the civic chiefs of Mumbai and five other municipal corporations to court for not complying with its directions to keep roads pothole-free.

A division bench of Chief Justice DK Upadhyay and Justice Arif Doctor has summoned commissioners of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), Thane Municipal Corporation, Vasai Virar Municipal Corporation, Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation, Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation and Mira Bhayander Municipal Corporation to court on August 11.

HC takes serious note of deaths caused due to potholes

The bench also took a serious note of deaths due to potholes and appointed a commission of two lawyers “to inquire and ascertain if the biker had died due to dodging of a pothole or otherwise.''

The judges remarked that since 2018, the high court has passed several orders directing civic bodies to ensure pothole free roads, however no adequate action has been taken by the municipal corporations in the last five years.

“We require the presence of the BMC Commissioner and the commissioners of the other municipal corporations to explain as to why they should not be made liable for disobedience and non-compliance of court orders,” CJ said.

The HC is hearing a contempt petition filed by advocate Ruju Thakker alleging willful non-compliance by the BMC with the 2018 judgement on a public interest litigation (PIL) related to fixing of roads.

Questioning the civic bodies' inaction, the CJ asked; "It has been five years since the first order was passed on the issue in 2018 and still the civic bodies have not been able to remove potholes."

The judges also took a serious note of increasing numbers of accounts due to potholes, open manholes and poor conditions of roads and said that unless senior officials were made liable, no action would be taken. It said that in its December 2022 order, it has made it clear that if any untoward incident happens, then the respective metropolitan commissioner and chief engineer shall be held responsible.

High Court raps municipal commissioners for their non-compliance

The commissioners are in contempt of court as they have not complied with the court orders, remarked the CJ. "Ideally before every monsoon, each civic body ought to carry out a survey of potholes and manholes in their jurisdiction," the court said.

The court had set up a commission of two lawyers to "inquire and ascertain the cause of death" of a 32-year-old biker who died after being run over by a dumper while trying to dodge a pothole in Kalyan.

However, KDMC filed an affidavit claiming that the biker did not fall because of pothole but fell because of a narrow and congested road. The bench said that since the KDMC was contesting the cause of death, it needs to ascertain the cause of death.

"In view of this denial of cause of death by the KDMC, we need to ascertain if the death has occurred on account of poor condition of road and potholes," CJ said, adding: "We thus appoint a commission comprising of two lawyers to inquire and ascertain if the biker had died due to dodging of a pothole or otherwise."

The bench referred to news reports and observed, “They depict the poor non-transportable condition of roads, which sometimes becomes the cause of certain accidents.”

The HC has kept the matter on August 11 for the six commissioners to appear.