The Madras High Court administration has complained to the court, on its judicial side, that the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) is showing little interest in ensuring proper maintenance of the court campus.
In a report submitted before the first Bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice P.D. Audikesavalu, Registrar (Administration) V. Devanathan said the GCC had to be goaded constantly to get work done.
The report was filed through High Court counsel S. Haja Mohideen Gisthi in response to a PIL petition filed in 2017 about the lack of hygiene inside the campus.
On the litigant N. Rajkumar’s complaint that GCC was not cleaning the campus properly, the Registrar said, “It is true that the Corporation of Chennai shows little interest in the maintenance activities on campus.”
“There is reluctance at every level and every issue is required to be escalated to the higher authorities,” he added.
On the menace of stray dogs on the court campus, the High Court Registry said the issue was perennial.
The situation with respect to open defecation on the compound walls of the High Court “has slightly improved after frequent goading”, but maintenance of two Corporation toilets outside the court campus was not up to the mark, it lamented.
Conceding that there was indiscriminate littering and insufficient garbage bins on the campus in 2017, the Registry said the situation had improved now and constant measures were being taken to keep the campus clean.
The GCC recently provided 18 sweepers, 25 rotomatic bins and 24 compactor bins, and stated that it would provide additional bins, too, if required. The court was also told that all buildings on the campus had ramps for easy access by the disabled.
After receiving the Registrar’s report, the litigant’s counsel sought a week to file a rejoinder. The Bench adjourned the matter by a week.
