On Thursday, the Bombay High Court said that it is a fundamental right of citizens to enjoy good roads and footpaths. A division bench of Justice Abhay Oka and Justice Riyaz Chagla ruled out that good streets will be made available only when the government’s plans for smart cities will become a reality.
We are aware of the government’s endeavour to make every city smart. However, no city can become a smart city unless it has roads and footpaths in a reasonably good condition. It is the fundamental right of a citizen to have roads and footpaths in a reasonably good condition and correspondingly it is the obligation of local authorities to provide it to them. All steps should be taken to see that the citizens are not deprived of their rights,” observed the bench.
Saying this, the HC directed the Maharashtra government to set up a centralised grievance redressal mechanism and frame a policy which will ensure good quality roads that are constructed.
Referring to Dr Deepak Amprapurkar case — who fell into the open manhole in 2017 — the bench said that authorities fail to maintain roads.
Necessary precaution should be taken to ensure that such an unfortunate incident of citizens falling into an open manhole should not be repeated. The municipal corporation shall take all possible steps to see to it that no open manhole is left unattended. If it is left open, then necessary warning signs shall be placed near it. If a citizen suffers as a result of the failure of the state machinery to maintain roads, apart from liability under the regular law of torts, the person can take recourse to public law remedy. They can initiate action under public law to seek compensation from the authorities,” said the judges.
The HC was hearing a suo motu PIL based on a July 2013 letter by Justice Gautam Patel.
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