Dealing with the bad habit of Indian men — of urinating on the nearest wall — the Delhi High Court has found it next to impossible to resolve the issue for want of judicially manageable standards.
The matter came up before the High Court through a writ petition which sought removal of photographs of deities affixed on walls by inhabitants of buildings in an attempt to deter men from urinating publicly. It was found that even that had not deterred men from going about their business. The petition affirmed that public sentiments were hurt by the habit of urination on pictures of deities and sought a direction to the government authorities to remove the photos of deities.
A Division Bench of the High Court, in its recent judgment, observed that nobody could prevent a person from affixing photographs of deities on the walls of his house or outside the boundary walls of their housing complexes.
Unable to comment much, the Bench, comprising Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice Deepa Sharma said: “The solution lies elsewhere, probably a hard whack on his body a little below the back.” The petition was moved by a local resident, Manoj Sharma, who named the Delhi Government and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi as respondents in the case.
While suggesting a solution, the Court refrained from issuing directions for its enforcement. “The only clumsy way in which this Court can solve the problem is by directing that the zipper of the flies of the pant of every male be locked, with a key kept in his house and a duplicate at his work place,” stated the judgment.
The Judges pointed out that such a direction would constantly require the Court to monitor the placement of keys. “It is settled law that a Court would not issue a [writ of] mandamus or a mandatory injunction which requires constant monitoring.”
The Court dismissed the writ petition not because it did not highlight a problem that needed to be tackled, but because it did not have “judicially manageable standards to solve the problem”.
