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Journalism of Courage
The Bombay High Court on Wednesday imposed a cost of Rs. 50, 000 payable to the petitioner for litigation expenses, on the National Highway Authority of India and the state Public Works Department (PWD) for breach of their undertaking of repairing work of the the Mumbai-Goa National Highway (NH-66).
A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Nitin M Jamdar and Justice Arif S Doctor noted that petitioner had approached the court complaining about non-completion of work despite assurances and series of orders had been passed earlier by the coordinate benches.
In a public interest litigation (PIL), petitioner lawyer Owais Anwar Pechkar, a resident of Chiplun city in Konkan, who commutes along the highway, alleged that accidents happen on the highway.
Pechkar also sought directions to the state government and NHAI to resolve issues faced by the commuters, including measures to fix potholes on NH-66, which is prone to accidents and expedite the widening work and complete the project at the earliest.
In 2022, the HC observed that the work pace to widen the highway, which had started in 2010, was ‘disappointing to say the least’, and directed to expedite the work.
Pechkar also submitted that in September, last year the HC had asked the authorities to be “serious” about the issue of potholes on highways in Maharashtra and make coordinated efforts to ensure precious lives are not lost due to the poor condition of roads. However, the same has not been achieved, causing difficulties to the commuters.
Pechkar placed on record photographs captured on July 2 showing potholes on the Highway and raised grievances against the same, seeking speedy fixing of the same.
On June 7, NHAI had filed an affidavit stating that it has decided to complete the balance work from 0 to 84.6 kilometres stretch of NH-6 pertaining to widening, through conversion of rigid pavements and the project has been divided into two contract packages, to be completed within four weeks.
The Court had then posted further the hearing to July 5 to monitor compliance of commitment made by the Authority.
On Wednesday, the Court noted that the authorities were in breach of their undertaking and two-year time to fix the Highway was over and sought to know if they had applied for extension of the same.
However, the NHAI lawyer submitted that while it should have sought extension for repair work, the concerned contractor had stopped the work and he had moved before the Delhi High Court challenging show-cause notice issued against him for non-completion of the work.
The bench also noted that several orders were passed by the coordinate benches of HC since 2018 in the matter and the authorities failed to complete filing of potholes within the two-year limit and no extension was sought by the authorities beyond 2020.
The bench said that the commitments which are recorded in previous orders must be adhered to by the authorities. It directed senior officers including the Project Director of NHAI and the Superintendent Engineer of PWD to visit the spots and conduct a survey and file a report before the HC within four weeks.
Moreover it asked the respondent authorities to pay Rs. 50, 000 as a litigation cost to the petitioner.
The Court will hear the PIL next on August 9.
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