IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA CWJC No.480 of 2010 1. RAM CHANDRA LAL S/O LATE SHATRUGHAN LAL R/O MEHSAUL, WARD NO.19, (NEW 28), WEST OF RAILWAY GENERATOR HOUSE, P.S.-SITAMARHI, DISTT-SITAMARHI Versus 1. THE STATE OF BIHAR, THROUGH THE DISTRICT MAGISTRATE SITAMARHI 2. NAGAR PARISHAD SITAMARHI, THROUGH ITS CHAIRMAN 3. THE CHAIRMAN, NAGAR PARISHAD SITAMARHI 4. THE EXECUTIVE OFFICER, NAGAR PARISHAD SITAMARHI ----------- 02. 08.03.2011 Heard learned counsel for the petitioner and for the State. In the nature of the controversy noticed from the writ petition, the Court does not consider it necessary to issue notice to the Nagar Parishad, Sitamarhi. The matter relates to discharge by the Nagar Parishad of its statutory duties to provide municipal services, a duty to be performed whether there be Court orders or not. The petitioner filed Case No. 03 of 2001 before the District Consumer Forum at Sitamarhi, claiming to be a consumer of the Nagar Parishad alleging failure on its part to provide municipal services and consequent denial of liability to pay Municipal Taxes till the same are not provided The District Consumer Forum on contest and after hearing the parties dismissed the case on 21.10.2009 holding that the petitioner did not fall in the category of a consumer of the Nagar Parishad and 2 therefore the proceedings were not amenable to the Consumer Protection Act. It was further held that it was not ground to deny payment of Municipal taxes. The Court does not consider it necessary to go into the larger question whether the petitioner can be classified as a consumer and the Municipality, a service provider. That may fall for consideration in another appropriate case. Presently, the Court finds that the writ application can easily be disposed off with appropriate directions to the Nagar Parishad, Sitamarhi to discharge its statutory duties. The petitioner alleges non-provision of basic amenities like water supply, toilet, education, health, roads and other Municipal facilities including accumulation of stagnated water during monsoon etc. Any dispute that the petitioner may have with regard to the period for which the dues may pertain and the quantification and calculation of dues is an entirely different matter which can be pursued by the petitioner before the appropriate authority/forum in accordance with law. The failure of the Nagar Parishad to provide municipal services may not be sufficient to deny liability for statutory taxes. The statutory obligation of the Nagar Parishad to provide basic Municipal services is an entirely different 3 aspect of the matter. The Court may only refer to the locus classicus in (1980) 4 SCC 162 (Municipal Council Ratlam Versus Shri Vardichan and Others). In accordance with the directions contained in paragraph -23, the Court issues a mandamus to the Sitamarhi Nagar Parishad to perform its statutory duties by replacing the directions contained therein with those as claimed by the petitioner:- “23. We make the further supplementary directions which we specifically enjoin upon the municipal authority and the State Government to carry out. “1. We direct the Ratlam Municipal Council (Rl) to take immediate action, within its statutory powers, to stop the effluents from the Alcohol Plant flowing into the street. The State Government also shall take action to stop the pollution. The Sub-Divisional Magistrate will also use his power under Section 133 CrPC, to abate the nuisance so caused. Industries cannot make profit at the expense of public health. Why has the Magistrate not pursued this aspect? 2. The Municipal Council shall, within six months from today, construct a sufficient number of public latrines for use by men and women separately, provide water supply and scavenging service morning and evening so as to ensure sanitation. The Health Officer of the Municipality will furnish a report, at the end of the six-monthly term, that the work has been completed. We need hardly say that the local people will be trained in using and keeping these toilets in clean condition. Conscious cooperation of the consumers is too important to be neglected by representative bodies. 3. The State Government will give special instructions to the Malaria 4 Eradication Wing to stop mosquito breeding in Ward 12. The Sub-Divisional Magistrate will issue directions to the officer concerned to file a report before him to the effect that the work has been done in reasonable time. 4. The Municipality will not merely construct the drains but also fill up cesspools and other pits of filth and use its sanitary staff to keep the place free from accumulations of filth. After all, what it lays out on prophylactic sanitation is a gain on its hospital budget. 5. We have no hesitation in holding that if these directions are not complied with the Sub-Divisional Magistrate will prosecute the officers responsible. Indeed, this Court will also consider action to punish for contempt in case of report by the Sub-Divisional Magistrate of wilful breach by any officer.” Insofar as the State is concerned, it shall be well advised to wake up to its duties vis-à-vis the Nagar Parishad as observed in paragraph-24 of the judgment as follows:- “24. We are sure that the State Government will make available by way of loans or grants sufficient financial aid to the Ratlam Municipality to enable it to fulfil its obligations under this Order. The State will realise that Article 47 makes it a paramount principle of governance that steps are taken for the improvement of public health as amongst its primary duties”. The Municipality also will slim its budget on low priority items and elitist projects to use the savings on sanitation and public health. It is not our intention that the ward which has woken up to its rights alone need be afforded these elementary facilities. We expect all the wards to be benefited without litigation. The pressure of the judicial process, expensive and dilatory, is neither necessary nor desirable if responsible bodies are responsive to duties. Cappilletti holds good for India 5 when he observes:_ “Our judicial system has been aptly described as follows: Admirable though it may be, (it) is at once slow and costly. It is a finished product of great beauty, but entails an immense sacrifice of time, money and talent. This „beautiful‟ system is frequently a luxury, it tends to give a high quality of justice only when, for one reason or another, parties can surmount the substantial barriers which it erects to most people and to many types of claims.” Why drive common people to public interest action? Where directive principles have found statutory expression in Do‟s and Dont‟s the court will not sit idly by and allow municipal government to become a statutory mockery. The law will relentlessly be enforced and the plea of poor finance will be poor alibi when people in misery cry for justice. The dynamics of the judicial process has a new “enforcement” dimension not merely through some of the provisions of the criminal procedure code (as here), but also through activated tort consciousness. The officers-in- charge and even the elected representatives will have to face the penalty of the law if what the Constitution and follow up legislation direct them to do are defied or denied wrongfully. The wages of violation is punishment, corporate and personal. Mandamus is issued to the State Government and the Nagar Parishad to perform their statutory duties and provide the basic Municipal facilities in the area in question, a necessary concomitant of Article 21 of the Constitution of India insofar as the residents of the area are concerned. 6 Let this order be complied with within a maximum period of six months from the date of receipt/production of a copy of this order insofar as provision of basic Municipal facilities are concerned. The application stands disposed. P.K. ( Navin Sinha, J.)