Jayna Kothari examines whether public bodies like Municipal Corporations can be held liable for accidents and deaths of individuals due to their negligence in the maintenance of roads, open drains, and other such hazards. She also delves into using human rights principles to instill a sense of duty of care that public authorities should owe to the public and those who are affected by this negligence in care.
Can public bodies be held legally liable in case of tragic accidents and deaths due to their negligence, say in the case of maintenance of roads, pavements, open drains, ill-placed transformers and other encroachments on public streets? I would examine legal liability in three ways. First, the piece of legislation by which public authorities are set up such as the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act or the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Act, 1964 (BWSSB Act), where the duties of the public bodies to carry out and maintain roads, streets, drains, pavements, sewers or other public areas are listed. However, these legislations do not provide for any liability on the public bodies if they do not carry out their obligations and cause harm to the public due to their non-compliance with the law…