Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court on Thursday directed the police department not to hesitate or refrain from registering a First Information Report (FIR) when any citizen goes to the jurisdictional police station to complain about serious injury or death due to potholes and poor road conditions.
“In the context of certain news reports, we allow the Ministry of the Interior to be the defendant, even if a citizen registers an FIR with the police authorities as a result of serious injury or death due to poor condition of roads and potholes, the police in most cases, the authorities Neither responded to the citizen nor filed the FIR,” Chief Justice Prasanna B Varale and Justice Ashok S Kinagi said in an order passed after hearing the PIL filed by Vijayan Menon and three others from Koramangala, 2015.
Referring to its earlier order dated 6th February 2020, which stated that citizens have the right to seek compensation where loss of life or injury is caused by poor road conditions, the High Court directed the BBMP to file a Statements seeking compensation, the number of such statements, or data on any compensation awarded upon receipt of such statements.
