During a hearing, a bench chaired by Acting Chief Justice Manmohan showed distressing images of rubbish heaped up along the highways and warned of possible suspensions for senior officials if conditions did not change.
Representative image
The Delhi High Court has harshly reprimanded the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) for failing to handle open drains and debris on Ghazipur roadways, where a mother and her three-year-old son drowned after falling into a soggy drain. The court described the MCD as a "cosy club," with senior officials unwilling to penalise poor personnel.
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During a hearing, a bench chaired by Acting Chief Justice Manmohan displayed distressing images of the scene, which showed rubbish heaped up along the highways for long periods. The court warned that if conditions did not change, it would begin suspending senior officials, reported PTI.
"They [MCD officials] fly like bees and sting like butterflies. They lack the courage to take action against their own officials," the court noted, expressing dissatisfaction with the failure to address public health crises such as dengue and chikungunya.
Per the PTI report, the court questioned how many more lives need to be lost before the MCD recognised the gravity of the problem. It stated that open drains should have been blocked or barricaded and that the existence of such hazards was unacceptable.
"Your officers are now turning into goody-goodies. They cannot take any action," the bench stated, emphasising that those responsible must be held accountable for their actions.
The court summoned the MCD deputy commissioner and directed immediate action to plug the open drains and clean the area. It also raised alarm about the absence of the MCD's standing committee and a scheduled cabinet meeting, claiming that the officials were "beyond redemption", the PTI report stated.
According to the report, the MCD's legal counsel claimed that the incident did not take place inside their jurisdiction, but the court seemed unconcerned about jurisdictional issues, directing the police to conduct their investigation quickly.
The court underlined that there should be no "black holes" in the city's control and that both the MCD and the DDA must be accountable for their respective sectors. It described the negligence surrounding the occurrence as "criminal negligence" and directed the investigating officer to submit a status report.
The case, which stems from a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) brought by local citizen Jhunnu Lal Srivastava, demands accountability for the murders of Tanuja, 22, and her son Priyansh. They perished in an under-construction ditch in Delhi-NCR on July 31 due to heavy rainfall.
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