The main legal point established in the judgment is the requirement for all speed breakers in the State of Maharashtra to adhere to the guidelines provided by the Indian Roads Congress, and the obligation of the authorities to ensure compliance with these guidelines.

( 1 ) ON oral request of the petitioners-parties-in-person, the Director General of Police, Maharashtra State, is impleaded as respondent No. 4 in suo motu Writ petition No. 3 of 2005 and respondent No. 5 in Writ Petition (PIL) No. 259 of 2005.

( 2 ) THESE petitions have been filed in this Court alleging the extremely poor condition of roads in Mumbai leading to many accidents and inconvenience to Mumbaites.

( 3 ) PURSUANT to the directions of this Court, on 26th April, 2005, regarding the respondents preparation to meet coming monsoon, Santosh Korlekar, deputy Chief Engineer (Roads) (E. S.) has filed a detailed affidavit. It is mentioned in the affidavit that number of meetings have been held of the assistant Commissioners and the concerned Road Department Staff for pre-monsoon measures to be taken with regard to roads of Mumbai. Accordingly, it has been decided to repair bad patches and potholes on roads prior to monsoon by using departmental staff working under the Assistant commissioners of the individual wards and contractual agencies working under the Zonal Dy. Chief Engineer (Roads ). It is mentioned in the affidavit that proposal for appointment of the contractual agencies are before the standing Committee. The trenches taken by the various utility agencies will be reinstated prior to the monsoon by the contractual agencies working under the Assistant Commissioners of the respective wards. The Standing Technical advisory Committee on roads in Greater Mumbai had suggested some measures for attending pot-holes. The said suggestions have been incorporated in the tenders invited for attending pot-holes. The tenders have been finalised and the proposal for appointment of contractor is before the Standing Committee. Immediately after the proposal is approved, the work orders will be issued to the contractors who will also attend the potholes and carry out pre-monsoon repairs. It is also indicated in the affidavit that short-term measures and the long-term measures as recommended by the Standing Technical Advisory committee would be implemented in the regular redevelopment contract of the roads as already mentioned in the earlier affidavit. Since the monsoon is approaching fast, we direct the Standing Committee to take the decision regarding appointment of the contractors as expeditiously as possible and, in any event, within two weeks from today.

( 4 ) REGARDING speed breakers, it is mentioned that location of the speed breakers are authorised by the Traffic Police Department on its own or on suggestions received from the public to the Traffic Police Department or on suggestions received from the public to the Traffic Department of the Municipal corporation of Greater Mumbai. It is also mentioned that directions had been issued for removal of unauthorised speed breakers and consequently several unauthorized speed breakers had been removed from time to time. It is mentioned that a circular had been issued by the Chief Engineer (Roads and traffic) to Assistant Commissioners of all the wards directing them to give a status report of the speed breakers indicating the number of speed breakers authorized by Traffic Police Department and the other speed breakers which have been constructed without permission and out of them how many unauthorised speed breakers (constructed in contravention of specifications) have been removed.

( 5 ) MR. Singhvi, the learned Senior Counsel appearing for the Corporation has produced the guidelines on the provision of speed breakers for control of vehicular speeds on minor roads prepared by the Indian Roads Congress. It is mentioned in the report that development of suitable recommendations on speed breakers had been under the consideration of the Traffic Engineering committee of the Indian Roads Congress for some time. The Traffic Engineering committee in their meeting held at New Delhi on 12th June, 1987, has revised the draft prepared by the University of Roorkee and finalised by IRC secret