GITA MITTAL, J.

1. By this judgment, I propose to dispose of a bunch of writ petitions all laying a challenge to a decision taken by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (referred to as MCD hereafter) to transfer all Community Toilet Complexes (hereinafter referred to as CTCs) constructed by it and under its jurisdiction for operation and maintenance to the Sulabh International Social Service Organisations (referred to as Sulabh for brevity) and cancellation of the agreements with the petitioners and other Non-Governmental Agencies (referred to as NGOs) to whom they were handed over for operation and maintenance. The challenge has been laid primarily on grounds of violation of Article 14 of the Constitution of India so far as the decision to hand over the CTCs to Sulabh is concerned while the cancellation of the allotments of the NGOs is challenged on grounds of arbitrariness, malafide, illegality and violation of principles of natural justice.

2. Sanitation is undoubtedly a basic service which is a right which must be ensured to every citizen, be it an adult or a child. Sanitation is a felt need while hygiene is important to health. This is a service which needs to be imperatively maintained at the community level. While those who are poor cannot pay for the provision and maintenance of the basic service provided to them, a completely free service runs the risk of the service not being valued at all and even be misused. Community participation in planning, construction and maintenance of such like services ensures that the community values it and will use it. Contribution to creation of such facilities may be by dispensation of finance, real estate, labour or service. When people do not have the time to contribute labour or otherwise to the construction, operation and maintenance, they are required to pay a charge for the service. A small contribution, no matter how small, is often a confirmation of the value of a service to the people and their willingness to maintain it. In developing nations, the problem is more aggravated, inasmuch as it is necessary even to educate and inculcate the habit of using a toilet in people who have never seen the facility. This lack of information and knowledge however exacerbates the problems which are faced by metropolitan cities to which people from remote corners of the country migrate without any idea of sanitation facilities or basic hygiene.

In certain countries, much has been done to generate enlightenment about private toilets even in remote villages. My attention has been drawn to a good practice example which is to be found from Bangladesh where large NGOs provide the material for constructing a latrine but the beneficiary family, however poor, finds the time to construct the soak pit and the walls (often of thatch material and bamboo). BRAC, an NGO in Bangladesh has created an entire movement for sanitising entire villages based on this type of participation by the users of the service themselves. Some other agencies even give material on credit, of about 600 taka and recover it slowly over several years. This is not a significant burden on the family, but works as a mechanism through which people actually demand and value basic services.

3. The pressure on this city has been always in tremendous. Large numbers from all over the country descend in droves upon Delhi in search of employment or other opportunities and never leave. It is to address the basic needs of such persons who have no permanent abodes that the civic authorities including the Municipal Corporation of Delhi have had to concentrate, conceptualise and develop common toilet complexes which provides both toilet and bathroom facilities for the community.

4. Over the years, several modules of the operation and maintenance of these common toilet complexes (hereinafter referred to as 'CTCs') have been tested by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi which is the primary body concerned with health, sanitation,