Bombay HC Assigned Special Bench to Hear Issue of Potholes on Roads in Maharashtra

Bombay High Court Law Insider

Tanisha Rana

Published on: 21st August, 2022 at 21:21 IST

The Bombay High Court is going to assign a special bench to hear the issue of raising grievances about potholes on roads in Maharashtra.

A bench comprising of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice MS Karnik was approached by a lawyer, Advocate Manoj Shirsat, in the capacity of the officer of court, seeking urgent hearing on the issue of raising grievances about potholes on roads in Maharashtra.

During the hearing, the lawyer pleaded before the bench that there had been a huge loss of lives and property due to the potholes on roads and the government’s negligent nature on this issue is a violation of the fundamental rights of the citizens.

After hearing the lawyer’s plea, the Bench then asked the lawyer to submit information/data of raising grievances about potholes on roads that he wants the Court to consider and also informed that a special bench will be assigned to consider this issue.

The issue first arose in 2013, when a letter written by Justice Gautam Patel was taken into cognizance by the then Chief Justice Mohit Shah and had thus, instituted suo motu proceedings on the issue.

The letter written by Justice Gautam Patel pointed out issue of raising grievances about potholes on roads in Mumbai and its neighbouring districts. He mentioned that several accidents were taking place because of the bad conditions of roads in Maharashtra. He also stated that due to the potholes on roads, there had been a huge loss of lives and property.

After this, the scope of the PIL regarding the issue of raising grievances about potholes on roads was expanded to the entire state of Maharashtra.

In 2018, a detailed judgment was passed by a bench of Justices AS Oka and PN Deshmukh, taking into consideration, suggestions and reviews from various lawyers and other intervenors, on this issue.

In 2019, another lawyer from Mumbai, Raju Thakker approached the High Court that the authorities responsible had failed to implement the high court’s orders of February and April, 2018 on the issue of raising grievances about potholes on roads in Maharashtra.

Earlier this year, the High Court had again issued notices to concerned authorities regarding this issue and the non-repairment of potholes on roads. However, this case was not listed further by the court.

In light of this, the issue was mentioned today by counsel Manoj Shirsat.

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