Mumbai, Nov. 23 -- The Bombay high court on Tuesday said open manholes are death traps and people may unknowingly fall in them and hurt themselves grievously, even if they do not die. It asked the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to close the manholes on the Eastern Express Highway within a week.

It has also directed all civic bodies in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region to file affidavits before December 1 detailing the number of potholes within their jurisdiction and how many of them had been fixed.

A division bench of chief justice Dipankar Datta and justice Abhay Ahuja, while hearing a contempt petition filed by advocate Ruju Thakker, was informed that a 68-year-old woman recently died after falling in an open manhole at Virar....