India, Aug. 18 -- LUCKNOW Stressing that access to clean drinking water is part of the fundamental right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court directed the district magistrate, municipal commissioner, and managing director of UP Jal Nigam to join the proceedings on August 25 through video conferencing. The court expressed displeasure with Lucknow Municipal Corporation for not providing the no-objection certificate (NOC) required for setting up a water treatment plant in the city.

A division bench of Justice Rajan Roy and Justice Manjive Shukla passed the order on August 13 while hearing a PIL filed by Utkarsh Lok Sewa Sansthan in 2016, seeking directives for the provision of clean dri...