The Bombay High Court has excoriated BMC for its persistent failure to cover open manholes across Mumbai, calling the civic body's compliance affidavits an 'eyewash' and declaring it places 'no value for human lives,' according to The Indian Express and Times of India. The real question is whether judicial anger will ever escalate to personal liability for officials.
A sixty-year-old man walks into a waterlogged Mumbai lane during monsoon. He does not walk out. He falls into an open manhole hidden beneath a few inches of brown water, and by the time anyone notices, it is too late. This is not a freak accident. This is a pattern so predictable it deserves its own calendar entry: June arrives, the rain arrives, the manholes open, the bodies follow.
This week, the Bombay High Court said out loud what Mumbaikars mutter into their tea every July: BMC places 'no value for human lives.' According to The Indian Express, the Court pulled up the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation for its abysmal failure to secure open manholes across the city, calling its compliance affidavits a sham. The Times of India reported that the bench described those affidavits as an 'eyewash' — a paper ritual that changes nothing on the street where it matters.
The fury is not new. That is precisely the problem. The Bombay High Court has, for multiple monsoon seasons now, hauled BMC before it, demanded explanations, received affidavits stuffed with assurances, and watched helplessly as the next year's rains claimed the next year's victims. The cycle is so familiar it has acquired its own dark rhythm: death, outrage, hearing, affidavit, silence, rain, death.
Political Pulse
Here is the part the affidavits will never say. BMC — one of the richest municipal corporations in Asia, with an annual budget that routinely exceeds ₹50,000 crore — is not short of money. It is short of accountability. The talk in Mumbai's political corridors, as India Herald reads it, is that manhole maintenance sits in an administrative no-man's-land between multiple agencies and contractors, and the political class that oversees BMC has historically treated infrastructure deaths as an acceptable monsoon tax — tragic, but not career-ending.
Who runs BMC right now? In the absence of elected corporators for years — civic elections have been delayed repeatedly — the corporation has been functioning under an appointed administrator. That means there is no elected body to face voters' wrath. The bureaucrat running the show answers upward to the state government, not downward to the ward. This structural gap is the real manhole, and it is as uncovered as the ones on the road. Speculation in governance circles is that the prolonged absence of an elected BMC council has quietly eroded even the minimal accountability that electoral fear provides.
Shiv Sena MP Milind Deora captured the public mood: 'Another life lost. Another preventable tragedy. How many more Mumbaikars must die?' according to IANS. The question is rhetorical, but the answer is chillingly precise: at least a few more, every single monsoon, until the cost of inaction is directed at a person, not a department.
The Contempt Question Nobody Wants to Answer
The Bombay High Court's sharpest weapon — contempt proceedings with personal liability for named officials — has remained largely sheathed. The judicial pattern across India is familiar: strong oral observations, stern directions, compliance deadlines, and then... another hearing where the same cycle restarts. What the Court has not yet done, and what activists and lawyers in Mumbai are increasingly calling for, is to attach personal consequences — not to BMC as an institution, but to the specific commissioner or engineer whose signature sits on the affidavit that the Court has now called an eyewash.
That escalation is not hypothetical. The Supreme Court and various High Courts have, in environmental and civic-rights matters, imposed personal costs on officers. The question for the Bombay High Court is not whether it has the power — it does — but whether this monsoon's body count will be the trigger. The legal chatter, according to observers tracking the case, is that the bench's language this time — 'no value for human lives' — is a marker, a judicial signal that the patience account is nearly overdrawn.
The Pattern That Proves the Problem
Consider the mechanics. BMC's road network covers thousands of kilometres. The number of manholes is staggering — estimates have put it at over 300,000 across the city. Keeping every single one covered and secured during a monsoon that dumps hundreds of millimetres in a single day is genuinely difficult. But the Court's anger is not about the impossible task of perfection. It is about the gap between what BMC swears in court and what exists on the ground. The affidavits describe audits completed, covers replaced, sensors installed. The streets tell a different story: missing covers, rusted grates, and manholes that disappear under six inches of rainwater with no warning marker.
The citable number that should haunt every planning meeting: according to reports compiled by civic activists and cited in media coverage over recent years, Mumbai has averaged multiple manhole-related deaths every single monsoon season. Each one is someone who trusted that the road beneath their feet was solid.
What This Sets in Motion
India Herald's assessment of where this goes next: the Bombay High Court's escalating language is not theatre. Courts move from 'disappointed' to 'concerned' to 'no value for human lives' on a recognisable trajectory, and the next station on that line is a compliance mechanism with teeth — a court-appointed monitor, an itemised ward-by-ward audit with named officers, or contempt proceedings against a specific individual. Watch for the next hearing date: if the bench sets a short deadline and demands a personal appearance by the Municipal Commissioner rather than a legal representative, that is the signal that the Court has decided paper affidavits are done.
The larger signal for Mumbai's monsoon preparedness is grimmer. If BMC cannot secure manholes — among the most basic, most visible, most easily auditable pieces of urban infrastructure — what confidence can the city have in the less visible systems: stormwater drains, pumping stations, the structural integrity of buildings along flood-prone corridors? The manhole is the canary. And the canary, right now, is at the bottom of a flooded hole.
The question is not whether the Bombay High Court is angry enough. It plainly is. The question is whether the political and administrative system that governs Mumbai considers a court's fury more expensive than a citizen's life. So far, the annual evidence suggests it does not. This monsoon will tell us whether that calculus has finally, belatedly, changed — or whether next June will bring the same hearing, the same fury, and the same preventable grave.
More from India Herald
Key Takeaways
- The Bombay High Court called BMC's manhole compliance affidavits an 'eyewash' and said the corporation places 'no value for human lives,' per The Indian Express and Times of India.
- BMC has been operating without elected corporators for years, removing the electoral accountability that might otherwise force action on civic infrastructure deaths.
- The Court's escalating language — from 'concerned' to 'no value for human lives' — signals a possible move toward contempt proceedings or personal liability for named officials.
- Mumbai averages multiple manhole-related deaths every monsoon season, making this a predictable, preventable crisis rather than an unpredictable disaster.
- The manhole crisis is a proxy for Mumbai's broader monsoon preparedness: if the most visible infrastructure fails, the hidden systems are likely worse.
By the Numbers
- BMC's annual budget routinely exceeds ₹50,000 crore, yet basic manhole coverage remains inadequate during monsoons.
- Mumbai's manhole count has been estimated at over 300,000 across the city's road network.
- Mumbai has recorded multiple manhole-related deaths in every recent monsoon season, according to civic activist compilations cited in media reports.
The 5W+H: Who, What, When, Where, Why, How
- Who: A division bench of the Bombay High Court, pulling up the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for negligence in covering open manholes across Mumbai.
- What: The Court slammed BMC's compliance affidavits as an 'eyewash,' stated there is 'no value for human lives,' and demanded accountability for preventable monsoon deaths caused by uncovered manholes.
- When: June 2026, weeks into Mumbai's monsoon season.
- Where: Mumbai, Maharashtra — across the city's road network, with the hearing at the Bombay High Court.
- Why: Recurring monsoon deaths from citizens falling into open or poorly covered manholes, despite years of judicial warnings and BMC assurances of corrective action.
- How: The Court questioned BMC during a hearing on manhole safety compliance, found the civic body's affidavits inadequate, and issued sharp oral observations demanding genuine accountability rather than paper compliance.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does BMC fail to cover open manholes every monsoon despite court orders?
According to the Bombay High Court, BMC's compliance affidavits have been an 'eyewash' — the corporation files assurances in court but fails to implement them on the ground. The absence of an elected BMC council for years has removed electoral accountability, leaving an appointed administrator with no direct voter pressure to fix the problem.
Can the Bombay High Court hold BMC officials personally liable for manhole deaths?
Yes. Indian courts have the power to initiate contempt proceedings and impose personal costs on officials who defy court directions. Legal observers note that the Bombay HC's increasingly sharp language suggests this escalation is possible if compliance continues to fail.
How many people die from open manholes in Mumbai each monsoon?
While exact annual figures vary, media reports and civic activist compilations indicate that Mumbai has recorded multiple manhole-related deaths in every recent monsoon season, making it a recurring and predictable crisis.
Who currently governs BMC in the absence of elected corporators?
BMC has been functioning under an appointed administrator since civic elections were delayed. This administrator reports to the Maharashtra state government, not directly to Mumbai's voters, creating a structural accountability gap.
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