Fed up of potholes, Bombay HC judge brings it up in 2 hearings

It took two hours for Justice Vidyasagar Kanade to reach Borivli from his south Mumbai home one day and the back-breaking journey left him in agony for a week, thanks to the city's infamous potholes and waterlogged roads. The senior judge brought this up in two separate hearings at the Bombay High Court yesterday.

In the first instance, the case wasn't even related to roads. Justices Kanade and Mahesh Sonak were hearing a petition filed against construction near the IMD's Doppler radar in Colaba as it creates hindrance in the path of the radar. When senior counsel SU Kamdar rose to present BMC's defence in the case, Justice Kanade said, "The condition in the city is getting worse day by day. Earlier it was just waterlogging, but nowadays the problem of potholes has increased." The Doppler hearing continued after Kamdar replied that the civic body was trying to tackle the pothole issue.

Justice Kanade

And again...
Fifteen minutes after the radar hearing ended, the bench assembled again to hear another case about tainted contractors responsible for bad roads in which the petitioner, BJP secretary Vivekanand Gupta demanded that the case be transferred from the Azad Maidan police station to the Anti-Corruption Bureau. Upon spotting BMC counsel Anil Sakhare, Kanade again narrated his experience and sought an explanation for the bad roads.

"We manage the road from south Mumbai to Sion and to Bandra, and we are doing our best to maintain the roads. The Public Works Department of the state government controls the Eastern and Western Expressways," said Sakhare.

"Why doesn't your agency (BMC) have coordination with them (PWD)," asked Kanade, after which he advised Sakhare to decide if an undertaking can be taken from the contractors declaring that they will be solely responsible for bad roads and would be liable to penalty.

One of the state lawyers quipped during the proceeding that the high court is already hearing a PIL that was started suo moto after Justice Gautam Patel wrote to the Chief Justice apprising him about the bad roads in Mumbai.

The next hearing in the road contracts case is slated for September 2.