Madras High Court Chief Justice Sanjay V. Gangapurwala on Wednesday, December 6, 2023, said flooding due to heavy rainfall is a regular feature in Mumbai in July every year, but the courts over there would never be closed on account of this, even if the staff do not turn up for work.
He made the remark when a woman lawyer complained to the first Division Bench comprising himself and Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy, about the water-logging in her residential area in Chennai and the travails she had to face to reach the court by wading through stagnant water.
Advocate Gnanabanu said that she residents on Kuttithambiran Street in Pulianthope in Chennai and that the water that had logged around her residence had not receded even after two days since the incessant rains that lashed the city on December 4 due to Cyclone Michaung.
The Chief Justice asked the State Government Pleader P. Muthukumar to note down the place and instruct the officials concerned to look into her grievance. When the SGP said logging had been cleared in most parts of the city, the CJ said there was still rainwater logging in some places.
Stating he went through some parts of the city on Tuesday, the Chief Justice said, he could see waterlogging in some pockets. When Justice Chakravarthy wanted to know whether government bus services had resumed, the SGP replied in the affirmative and said services had been resumed in most places.
