Contempt petition: HC serves notices to chief secretary, civic chief & others

Aurangabad, Sept 23:
In response to a contempt petition, the Aurangabad bench of Bombay High Court comprising Justice S P Deshmukh and Justice R G Awchat has ordered serving of notices to the state''s chief secretary of Urban Development Department (UDD) Mahesh Pathak, the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) administrator A K Pandey and others for not executing the orders of the High Court to construct a road in six months.

The bench also issues notices to the district collector Sunil Chavan, and the assistant director (town planning) R S Mahajan. The next hearing on contempt petition will be held on October 16, 2020.

It may be noted that a resident of Narayan Pushp Housing Society, developed on land bearing gut number 710 in Chikalthana, Adv Narsinh Laxmanrao Jadhav, filed the public interest litigation (PIL) in 2014 demanding to provide an approach road for the residents of society. The final hearing held on July 8, 2019. The bench comprising Justice Prasanna Warale and Justice R G Awchat ordered the AMC to construct the road for the society in six months.

As per the orders, the duration of six months ended in January 2020. The AMC failed to construct the road as per court order. Moreover, eight months had passed to the deadline (till September) the work is yet to be started. During this period, Adv Jadhav maintained correspondence with the civic administration requesting to implement the HC orders. When the civic body failed to abide by the orders, Adv Jadhav filed a contempt petition in the high court. Accordingly, the bench gave the above verdict on September 18.