When many Stretches of highway disappears, and Justice takes the wheel: Filing an FIR, a joke or a lawful act of courage?

Dr. Dinesh Sri Vijaya Puram, Nov 04: In 2023, the Calcutta High Court (Circuit Bench at Port Blair) took suo motu cognisance of the appalling condition of National Highway-4, the lone arterial road linking South and North Andaman. What the Bench encountered was not merely a damaged road but the debris of official neglect. Describing the highway as “virtually non-existent,” the Court castigated the National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd. (NHIDCL) for repeated delays and hollow assurances. In an unprecedented move, it imposed a ₹100-crore penalty on NHIDCL, a historic reprimand in a public-infrastructure case and a blunt reminder that administrative inertia cannot hide behind paperwork. When a group of citizens filed an FIR on 1/11/25 alleging corruption and misuse of