92-year-old’s 9-year battle against ‘tyranny of bureaucracy’ ends as Kerala High Court invokes freedom fighter’s poetic lines

Justice P V Kunhikrishnan said the nonagenarian’s fight indicates that age is merely “a limitation you put on your mind.”

Acknowledging the elderly man’s fighting spirit, the Kerala High Court’s Justice Kunhikrishnan quoted Thirumumbu’s decades-old lines, saying, “My old age is not gray-headed; My youth is not gray-headed; My youth is not dulled by the number of births and deaths, My youth is not accustomed to bowing down before the mighty evil power.”

He went on to explain the meaning of the lines, and described, “The poet says that, greying my head is not my old age, and also not greying my head is not my youthfulness. The poet again states that counting the days from birth to the final day of life is not a measure of my youthfulness. The courage to never bow his head to the tyranny of bureaucracy during that time was his youthfulness.”

The Kerala High Court further added that this message is intended for older adults and younger people: “Age is no barrier to anything; it is a limitation you put on your mind and a lack of enthusiasm that holds you back.”

Slamming the municipal authority, the court said that this is nothing but a sorry state of affairs where to cut and remove a dangerous tree leaning toward a residential house, a citizen has to approach the constitutional court! It is nothing short of a shame on the corporation authorities.

The order added that they should read Thirumumbu’s poem 100 times to know that powerful citizens are here to fight against them, irrespective of their age, if they refuse to perform their duties.

The Kerala High Court emphasised that no citizen needs to bow their head to the bureaucracy if their rights, guaranteed by law, are infringed.

Background

• The petitioner, C J Mathews, a retired official of the Ministry of Defence and resident of Kochi, has been petitioning various authorities since 2017 regarding two large trees on an adjacent seven-cent vacant plot.
• The petitioner alleged that the trees posed an imminent threat to his life and residential building, with its roots penetrating the foundation of his house and wastewater pipelines, and branches endangering the structure during storms.
• He claimed that the property is now a comfortable home for dangerous snakes and bats, further exacerbating the mental strain.
• Despite a 2017 order from the RDO and a 2021 directive from the district collector, the Kochi Municipal Corporation only cleared bushes on the property, and failed to remove the trees.

Findings

• Mathews has been fighting for a genuine cause for the last nine years.
• Although he failed, he continues to fight, and at last, he has knocked on the doors of this court.
• The bureaucracy in this country should actually bow its head in front of such a nonagenarian after doing its duty.
• Let the citizens of this country fight with the bureaucracy without bowing their heads, as said by T S Thirumumbu decades back, and say loudly that the law is for all and the right created by the law is their fundamental right.
• If bureaucracy fails, constitutional courts will step in. It is the duty of this court to see that the grievance of this nonagenarian is redressed.
• Elderly people experience heightened anxiety when they apprehend danger to their life and their family.
• The petitioner states that he is afraid due to dangerous trees and snake-prone bushes near his house.
• He approached the authority concerned to redress his grievance. There is no action. This can exacerbate mental strain for a nonagenarian.
• Environmental threats like this contribute to anxiety, social isolation, and even elevated psychiatric morbidity in old people.
• When such grievances are raised by persons like the petitioner, the official respondents ought not to have delayed the same in this manner.
• Let the petitioner reside in his house as a centenarian also, without apprehending any danger to his life or that of his family.