Waterlogging damages elderly woman's house in Delhi. Court tells MCD to pay her Rs 9 lakh

Delhi High Court has asked the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) to pay a compensation of Rs 9 lakh to an octogenarian woman whose house was flooded and damaged during the monsoon due to a construction work of the civic body. The news came amid unprecedented floodings in another part of India - in Bengaluru where heavy rains created havoc and inundated several localities.

According to reports, the Delhi woman identified as Leela Mathur approached the court, pointing out that each time the road, near her house, was repaired, its level rose by about 2 and a half feet. Due to this, her house has gone below the road level. The rainwater gets collected in the house which has caused damage to the house of the petitioner.

The woman stated that it becomes impossible to live in the house as rainwater enters the house during the monsoon season.


The MCD reportedly suggested her to make a toe wall of about 8 inches but the court said that 80-year-old woman cannot be expected to climb over it every time to enter the house.

The court slammed MCD for indiscriminate repair works, "without following basic care and caution".

"A responsible Municipal Corporation consisted for the precise purpose of providing these basic public goods cannot shirk off its responsibility by citing financial constraints," the order highlighted.

The court noted that the appellant who would have to incur Rs 21 lakh to carry out the necessary repairs of her home, was earlier awarded only Rs 3 lakh as compensation.

"Having due regard to the advanced age of the appellant, the fact that she has been pursuing this litigation for over a decade, has suffered loss of her material possessions, and has undergone immense agony and anxiety for a prolonged period of time, this court finds it appropriate to enhance the compensation awarded to Leela Mathur by a sum of Rs 9,00,000, which would be roughly half the cost of reconstruction, and the challenge by the MCD to the order dated February 12, 2020 awarding compensation of Rs 3,00,000 to Leela Mathur is rejected," the order said.