Mumbai, Sep 28 (PTI) The Bombay High Court on Tuesday directed the Maharashtra government to file a compliance report within three weeks showing if and how it had implemented a 2018 HC order on repairing potholes on arterial roads in Mumbai.

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A bench led by Justice AA Sayed was hearing a PIL that it had initiated suo moto (on its own) in 2018, and an intervention application filed by lawyer Ruju Thakkar.

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Thakkar had also filed a contempt plea claiming that, by failing to implement HC's orders on repairing potholes and devising a uniform mechanism to redress citizens' grievances related to bad roads and potholes, the state and BMC had acted in contempt of HC orders.

Senior advocate Janak Dwarkadas, Thakker's counsel, told HC it was the statutory duty of authorities to maintain good roads.

He said, as per the High Court's 2018 order, the state government was to set up a centralised grievance redressal mechanism, and file quarterly reports.

This was in addition to independent grievance mechanisms for municipal corporation and councils across the state. Dwarkadas said such a system was non-existent.

The HC then said, considering the gravity of the issue raised in the PIL, Advocate General Ashutosh Kumbhakoni must represent the state in the next hearing.

In its 2018 order, HC had said a citizen had a fundamental right to have good roads and footpaths.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)