Pothole Accidents Are Man-Made Disasters, State Has Constitutional Duty To Protect Rights Under Article 21: Bombay High Court

The Bombay High Court on Friday was livid at the Maharashtra Government for failing to comply with its directions and called deaths owing to poorly maintained roads as "man-made disasters".

A division bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyay and Justice Arif Doctor were referring to the State's indecision in setting up a Centralised Grievance Redressal Mechanism for addressing road-related complaints as well as handing over of all remaining roads in Mumbai to BMC.

"A pedestrian or a cyclist falls into an open manhole is not an accident or a natural disaster, it is a man-made disaster. You not only have a constitutional duty under Article 21, but also a statutory obligation," the Court told the State Government's counsel.

The court has ordered Advocates to be appointed as Court Commissioners for every single Municipal Ward and conduct a survey along with the Ward Officer to check if protective grills have been installed on all the manholes.

The BMC claims over 6,000 potholes in flood prone areas have been covered with protective grills and the remaining 94,000 potholes would be covered by May 2024.

The Court was hearing a contempt petition filed by Advocate Ruju Thakkar on the dismal condition of roads, specifically regarding the non-compliance of the High Court's 2018 speaking order.

On Wednesday, the High Court had asked Municipal Commissioners of all six civil corporations in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region to remain present. During the hearing on Friday, the court was upset that the State had failed to take any decision on a Centralised Grievance Redressal Mechanism as recommended by the High Court in 2018.

In 2018 High Court had observed that various roads come under different bodies and it was impossible for a citizen to know with whom to register a complaint. Therefore a centralised system, with just one number was necessary.

"A simple executive decision could have been taken, but what did you do. Providing safe and motorable roads is as much your responsibility as the corporation's. The menace and problems continue."

Senior Advocate Anil Sakhare for BMC made most of the submissions. BMC Chief Iqbal Chahal was also present.

He said all 2,050 kms of roads in the BMC's custody will be concretised in the next three years. Concretisation of 1,400 kms of roads is complete and 502 kms are still underway. He said over 55 thousand pothole complaints were looked into by the BMC.

However, other Municipal Commissioners in the MMR region where the condition of roads is far worse, barely spoke.

"You might have repaired n kms of roads but the fact remains the roads are not motorable. Everyday instances are being reported in the paper, the net result remains the same. I am a statistics student. I've gone through the data. And there are three types of lies. Lies, damn lies and statistical lies!!" the Judge said.

These statistics are not to be confused with the amount of work that needs to be done, the court added.

The BMC asserted that it was in fact working toward better roads. Most of the Municipal Corporations blamed heavy rains for the poor conditions of roads. Environmentalist Zoru Bathena emphasized the lack of will to improve roads by the various Municipal Corporations. The civic bodies argument that only concretised roads will last is a scam, he said.

"All the roads repaired for the G20 Summit survived. They were not concretised roads," Bathena added.

Accordingly, the court ordered all the respondents in the contempt petitions to file detailed responses and posted the matter for hearing on September 29, 2023.

The court specifically noted the assurances given by the Secretary, Government of Maharashtra on September 30, 2022. "It was said that steps are being taken in the right direction, however when we called upon the GP as to whether a decision has been made, he said he needs time to take instructions."

The court also asked the Municipal Corporations to respond to points raised by Bathena.