HC issues show cause notice to Congress, Sena and BSP for putting up illegal hoardings

The court also allowed activist Zoru Bathena to intervene in the illegal hoarding petition. Bathena submitted an affidavit enumerating violations by various political parties which had put up illegal hoardings across the suburbs.

The Bombay high court issued show cause notices to the Congress, Shiv Sena and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) on Friday, asking why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against them after they failed to file undertakings to the court to ensure their members do not put up illegal hoardings. The court has asked the three parties to file their replies by March 27.

Mumbai congress Lok Sabha election campaign poster block the WEH at Malad in Mumbai (Satyabrata Tripathy/HT Photo)

A division bench of justices AS Oka and AS Gadkari was informed by advocate Uday Warunjikar, appearing for the petitioners, that ever since the court had come down heavily on illegal hoardings by political parties, municipal corporations across the state had stopped mentioning names of violating political parties when compiling reports. Warunjikar said the corporations were focusing on coaching classes and not giving details of violating political parties. He requested the court to issue directions to the political parties that had submitted undertakings asking them to submit action-taken reports against party members who had violated the court orders regulating hoardings.

The court also allowed activist Zoru Bathena to intervene in the illegal hoarding petition. Bathena submitted an affidavit enumerating violations by various political parties which had put up illegal hoardings across the suburbs.

In light of these submissions, the court directed the corporations to submit data as per the request of the petitioners’ counsel and also said that it would take serious note of the compliance. The show cause notices to Congress, Shiv Sena and BSP were issued after the court was informed that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Republican Party of India (RPI) had filed their undertakings, but failed to comply despite repeated court orders.