Judges’ cars to blame for ‘jerks’, not potholes: MCGM

In a bizarre submission, the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) on Friday blamed the ‘poor’ quality of the cars provided to the Bombay High Court Judges for the ‘jerks’ and not the ‘potholes’.

The submission made (though on a lighter note) by senior counsel Anil Sakhre was in response to the petitioner, who reiterated the comment made by one of the senior most judges of HC.

It may be recalled that Justice Vidyasagar Kanade had in August this year said that the poor quality of roads in the city and especially the ‘potholed roads’ had given him week-long back pain. The comment was made while hearing a suo moto public interest litigation highlighting the menace of potholes in the city.

On Friday, the petition was mentioned before a division bench of Justice Shantanu Kemkar and Justice Makarand Karnik.

While hearing the matter, the petitioner’s counsel informed the bench that the civic body has not yet filled all the potholes in the city, despite the bench’s earlier directions.

The counsel also reiterated Justice Kanade’s comment to which Sakhre (on a lighter note) said, “The cars provided to the HC judges are very old and there are chances that the suspension in them would not be of good quality leading to the ‘jerks’ which result in back pain.”

Patting the civic body’s back, the counsel said, “Our engineers are working day-in and day-out. The media and political parties are pressuring them but we are sure that the road repair work will soon get completed.”

After hearing both the sides, the bench posted the matter on Monday for further hearing.