Observing that municipal authorities have failed to maintain cleanliness in the capital, the Delhi High Court Wednesday asked the civic bodies to punish people for littering.

The court also ordered the civic bodies to supervise the work of sanitation workers employed in its various units to ensure cleanliness in the city.

A division bench of Justice B.D. Ahmed and Justice Siddharth Mridul observed that the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) failed to ensure cleanliness in various parts of the city.

The court's direction came on a petition by NGO Nyaya Bhoomi. When the MCD told the court that over 6,000 defaulters have been fined for littering, the court said it was too less and the city was turning dirtier day by day.

The court asked the civic agencies to maintain cleanliness in the city, and to take steps for penalising people for littering.

"Littering is an offence," the court said, directing municipal authorities to follow the Swachchh Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India campaign) in Delhi also.

The court asked municipal authorities to inform it about the number of sanitation workers and the locations they were posted for work.

The MCD said 62,777 sanitation workers were carrying out work like sweeping of roads, cleaning of public toilets and other work under sanitary superintendents.

The court said neither the sanitation workers nor their superior officials were doing their job responsibly and directed zonal directors to remain present on the next date of hearing Dec 18.

The NGO had filed a petition alleging that municipal authorities have failed to improve the conditions in the capital.

B.B. Sharan, an 86-year-old person representing the NGO, spoke about the poor state of public toilets, infrastructure and facilities in health and educational institutions.

Any sweeper not found present on duty can jailed for up to 30 days by municipal magistrates under the MCD Act, he requested.