India, Feb. 7 -- The Bombay High Court (HC) on Tuesday held that slum dwellers cannot be denied basic sanitation facilities and directed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to provide and maintain toilets in all the slums of Mumbai. A division bench of justices G S Kulkarni and Aarti Sathe observed in their order, "The municipal commissioner and officers below him cannot neglect and/ or breach such basic rights of citizens, who are living in unhygienic conditions, that too in the slums that proliferated on municipal and government lands."

The court directed the BMC commissioner to not only provide toilet blocks but also maintain them daily, stating that the task should be undertaken by the concerned assistant municipal commissio...