The Karnataka high court on Thursday directed the state to register a First Information Report (FIR) on complaints regarding accidents due to potholes. The court also ordered the police not to hide the technicalities of accidents while registering the complaints.
Since October 2021, eight people have lost their lives due to road accidents in Bengaluru.
A division bench led by Justice Prasanna B Varale and Justice Ashok S Kinagi heard the public interest litigation(PIL) on Thursday on the alleged failure of the civic authorities in filling up potholes on Bengaluru roads. During the hearing, the court directed the petitioner to include the Karnataka home department as a respondent in the case.
The court reiterated that residents who have met with accidents due to potholes could file a complaint at the police station, and the police department will investigate the matter.
“We are permitting this exercise in the backdrop of certain news item wherein it was reported that even though the citizens approach the police authorities for registering FIRs on account of serious injury being caused or death occurring due to the worst condition of roads and potholes, the police authorities on the majority of occasions are neither responding nor registering the FIRs. Accordingly, we direct that in case a citizen approaches the concerned police station with a complaint, the police authority shall not hesitate or avoid registration of the FIR by raising technical grounds,” the bench said.
The court also referred to the earlier order directing the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to survey the pothole-filling exercise carried out by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) in Bengaluru and file a report within eight weeks. The civic body was also directed to provide NHAI with all the relevant documents and set February 3 as the deadline for NHAI to submit a report.
According to the statistics released by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) for 2021, Bengaluru accounts for 30 incidents and 31 deaths “caused due to negligence of civic bodies”. Bengaluru topped the chart during 2019 and 2020 too.