The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Monday imposed a ₹10,000 fine on the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation (MC) for their eleventh-hour request to submit a response concerning a petition about garbage removal at the Dadumajra dumping site. The court stipulated that the MC’s response would only be entertained after they provide evidence of the fine’s payment at the subsequent hearing.
The litigation, initiated by advocate Amit Sharma, accuses the municipal authorities of deceiving the court to obscure violations of solid waste management regulations. Sharma claimed that despite the MC’s assertions of clearing two mounds of garbage, a third mound had accumulated over 240,000 metric tonnes of waste, thereby refuting the corporation’s claims that no new waste was being added to the site.
The MC’s defense contended that Sharma’s accusations were based on data from 2016 to 2020, a period during which an external contractor was responsible for managing the site. In response, Sharma argued that the ongoing blame game had done nothing to resolve the issue of persistent waste accumulation.
This case, which has been on the court’s docket since 2016, was combined with a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) Sharma filed in 2021. Additionally, the court expressed frustration over the MC’s repeated delays, including their requests for additional time to address allegations involving falsified documents, underlining the need for prompt and transparent action in managing the city’s waste disposal issues.
