KRISHNA SAHAI Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) WE are at our wit's end. At times we are tempted to raise our hands in despair, but we are reminded of our duties under the Constitution and our oath to uphold the same. The citizens of this Nation are guaranteed the right to life under the Constitution, which has been judicially recognised not merely as a right of existence, but a right to live in a civilised society with all the benefits of technological and other advances made, to the extent possible. A citizen is entitled to claim that he must live in surroundings which provide him the facilities for clean and hygienic living so that his life is protected from diseases and epidemics, and the State provides to him in reasonable measure the benefits of the progress of science and civilisation that it is expected to provide at the end of the twentieth century, to make his life worth living.

(2.) THE citizens of Patna, as also of other cities of this State, have been relegated to the state of nature if it rains the city is flooded converting the city into a veritable hell, and if it does not, a famine situation is created, so much so that even drinking water is scarce. The State and its instrumentalities have shown a degree of apathy which can be termed as criminal indifference. Notwithstanding orders passed by the Courts, they have done little to shield the citizens from the miseries to which they have been exposed. There is no drainage system worth mentioning for the city of Patna. If there is any, it is not visible, because in the rainy season the roads act as drains making the movement of traffic impossible. The rain water drains that existed have been filled up by encroachers without any resistance from the authorities concerned Similar is the case with the sewerage system of this city, which boasts of a Municipal Corporation, apart from the Bihar Jal Nigam, earlier known as the Biswas Board. What these bodies do, apart from providing employment, no one knows. In the result, the city of Patna can claim, without fear of contest, to be the filthiest State capital of this country. The situation is further aggravated by unauthorised structures which have been erected al1 over the city with the Patna Regional Development Authority being a mute spectator. In its over two decades of existence, it has not so far even fulfilled its statutory duty of drawing up the ¢ requisite plans under the Act.

(3.) IN a nutshell this State suffers not so much from maladministration, as it does from non -administration. On account of its inaction, a stage has been reached when even for routine matters a citizen has to knock the doors of the Courts resulting in burdening the docket of this Court with avoidable litigation. The Hobsonian choice before this Court is between leaving the citizens to fend for themselves, and to entertain the type of litigation, which in normal circumstances, this Court would not have entertained.