"Do you feel no shame seeing this?" Kerala High Court pulls up authorities for poor condition of roads

The Kerala High Court on Thursday came down heavily on the various authorities in charge of construction and maintenance of roads across the State as it noted that the Court has started getting complaints of bad roads after the monsoon rains (CP Ajithkumar v State of Kerala & Ors.).Justice Devan Ramachandran did not hold back as he asked the authorities how they could continue to remain unbothered and seemingly unashamed when the issue of roads falling into disrepair keeps cropping up year after year."If you are monitoring roads continuously, do you not notice when it gets damaged? This level of damage does not happen in one day. Can engineers not see this themselves when they pass by. Will they only take action after someone falls and dies? Do you not feel shame seeing and hearing this, because I certainly feel ashamed having to say this. How long has this been going on?", the judge remarked orally..The "real tragedy" of the situation, the Court said, was that it had, as far back in October 2019, issued an order in which it had given specific directions on the matter, which it now felt had been ignored and forgotten."As usual, after the monsoons, complaints of bad roads have again started coming to this court. This is a real tragedy because in the judgement dated October 18 2019, this court had given certain specific directions and it appears that all of them have been forgotten. However, this court cannot allow the administrators and stakeholders to be so forgetful and if they are so then steps and measures will be taken to make them alive to their statutory and constitutional duties," the order stated.With a view to fix personal responsibility, the Court directed the administrators of the concerned departments to immediately take stock of various roads in the State and take measures to ensure that responsibility is fixed on the concerned officials with respect to roads that fall into disrepair immediately after maintenance and reconstruction..The Court also remarked that it is aware of the accusations it has to put up with, of trespassing into governance, when it adjudicates on matters like this."Now everyone is accusing the High Court of doing governance. What else are we expected to do when you miserably fail at what you're expected to do. This year we didn't have much flood damage but I will have to start worrying about floods again soon. How long can we keep doing this? Why have you not realised that this is something that citizens need?", Justice Ramachandran orally observed..The Court made these observations while it was hearing one of its longest pending writ petitions, first moved in 2008, seeking directions to the concerned authorities to ensure the maintenance of the roads they construct..In its previous judgement, the Court, seemingly to no avail, had fixed the primary responsibility on the concerned engineers/staff of the respective departments/ local self government institutions to ensure that repair work in done properly and future repair works are noticed and done without any delay..Today, Amicus Curiae advocate S Krishna and advocate Tom K Thomas appearing for the petitioner, pointed out that the exasperating situation is that the very same road which is repaired by the corporation and by the other authorities last year are still falling into disrepair in a few months thereafter.The Court took a serious view of the matter saying that "this issue certainly has to be taken with the seriousness that it deserves because this country and its citizens cannot afford to conduct repairs on roads every year or every six months which appears to be the norm in spite of the various directions of this court".The Court, therefore, adjourned the matter to be heard again on December 14 by which time any interested party can provide inputs to the Court on roads in Cochin or any other part of the state that have fallen into disrepair.[Read Order]