Illegal banners will be removed immediately, says Advocate-General

CHENNAI: All banners and hoardings erected illegally in connection with MGR Centenary celebrations at Tiruchy will be removed immediately, Advocate-General (AG) Vijay Narayan told a division bench of the Madras High Court on Thursday.

Even the ones that were erected with necessary permission from the authorities concerned will be removed immediately after the function is over, he told a bench of justices M M Sundresh and M Sundar when arguments resumed in the evening.

Originally, ‘Traffic’ K R Ramaswamy, an activist, had filed a PIL petition for a directive to initiate action against police and other officials in Tiruchy city for their failure to take action against those who had erected banners, flex-boards and other advertisement materials in connection with the function arranged by the State government on Thursday.

When the matter came up in the morning, the A-G submitted that he would furnish the details with regard to the permission granted for erection of the banners by 4.30 pm. The bench adjourned the matter till then.
When the matter was taken up again, the A-G submitted that permission was given for erection of 200 banners from the airport to the function venue.

Twenty more were permitted to be erected by various government agencies. If any illegal banner had been erected without permission, they will be removed forthwith and even the licensed banner will be removed immediately after the function is over. The judges, however, orally observed they were not satisfied with the permission granted as it was not in accordance with rules.

The petitioner’s counsel pointed out that the banners were erected beyond the permissible size and there were more banners than the permitted ones. The bench, however, after recording the submission of the A-G, asked him to ensure that all the banners were removed by Friday. It posted the matter on Monday for filing compliance.

No urgent hearing on banner PIX

Chennai: A division bench of the Madras High Court has rejected a plea for an urgent hearing of an appeal against an order of Justice S Vaidyanathan, who had held that photographs or pictures of living persons should not be depicted in banners, flex boards and sign-boards.

When a bench of justices M Sathyanarayanan and N Seshasayee commenced its work on Thursday morning, counsel for Greater Chennai Corporation told them that it was proposing to file an appeal challenging the order dated October 24 of the single judge and sought for an urgent hearing of the same.

From 2008 onwards, the Madras High Court had passed several orders on the hoardings issue and the authorities concerned have ignored them. Hence, there was no need for any urgent hearing, the bench retorted. “Let it come in the usual course,” it said.