NMC bureaucracy should learn to respect law, human life : HIgh Court - Sanjay Patil

Sanjay Patil : Nagpur : A division bench consisting of Justice Sunil Shukre and Justice Madhav Jamadar, while hearing a suo-motu PIL on bad roads, emphatically made it clear that mere prosecution of a responsible officer, officials, or contractors would by itself not put an end to the malaise that has been the root cause of the loss of human life and property. Instead of penalising or prosecuting erring officer of contractor after loss of a precious human life, inculcating respect for law and human life among all stakeholders including officers and officials is necessary, the High Court stated. So, apart from proper monitoring of the whole process, the High Court also asked NMC authorities and their officers to ensure in the first place that no untoward incident or any accident leading to loss of human life and property occured. Just in case such untoward incident takes place, the officer concerned is held liable in criminal law as secondary purpose.

Giving a clarion call to Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) officers to respect law and learn to discharge their duties and responsibilities diligently and in compliance with various provisions of law, Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court underlined that efforts must be made to prevent any loss of life in road mishaps occurring due to shoddy works and potholes. A survey conducted by the then Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Chinmay Pandit already found at least 121 roads with potholes or where roads were in bad condition. Most of these stretches have witnessed accidents and mishaps leading to public uproar against the civic body and its contractors responsible for such shoddy work.

The primary purpose of such a petition is preventive rather than like post-mortem examination, for taking penal action in case accidents take place due to potholes, the High Court stressed while asking authorities to ensure that roads are without pothole. While tracing the journey of this eventful suo-motu criminal writ petition, the High Court noted that it was started as an effort to see the officials of NMC and other connected departments act diligently in discharging their duties and responsibilities under the municipal laws. “Emphasis was placed upon the provisions contained in Section 63 (18) and (19) of the Maharashtra Municipal Corporations Act, 1949 which casts a duty upon the municipal corporation to make reasonable and adequate provisions for maintenance of the roads, bridges and sub-ways etc,” the High Court noted. It had observed that due to neglect of such responsibility and failure to fasten the accountability, accidents were taking place leading to loss of human life and property.

Therefore, it insisted upon examining the criminal liability of negligent stakeholders to fasten responsibility on those who failed to perform the duty or mandate under the law. Some criminal prosecutions were launched against those found to be prima facie liable for causing serious injuries, deaths due to their negligence of maintaining the roads. These prosecutions are going on, the High Court noted asking the authorities to step up efforts while converting the petition into a criminal public interest litigation so that more effective orders not only preventive but also deterrent could be passed.