HC orders special drive to remove illegal posters, banners

The court was acting on a bunch of public interest litigations raising concern about illegal hoardings, banners and posters defacing major cities

The Bombay high court on Friday directed all municipal corporations across Maharashtra to undertake a special drive to remove all illegal hoardings, posters and banners, especially those displayed during Ganeshotsav.

The high court also directed the five major political parties from Maharashtra – BJP, Shiv Sena, Congress, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) to file affidavits disclosing what steps they propose to take to ensure that none of their leaders and party workers display illegal posters, banners and hoardings. (Hindustan Times)

The division bench of Justice Abhay Oka and Justice AK Menon said that the drive should commence immediately and continue till mid-October, after conclusion of the upcoming Navratri utsav.

The court was acting on a bunch of public interest litigations raising concern about illegal hoardings, banners and posters defacing major cities. It also directed the five major political parties from Maharashtra – BJP, Shiv Sena, Congress, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) to file affidavits disclosing what steps they propose to take to ensure that none of their leaders and party workers display illegal posters, banners and hoardings. The affidavits should be submitted by October 13, the court added.

The directives came after advocate Uday Warunjikar, representing one of the petitioners, pointed out that despite repeated orders by the court thousands of illegal posters and banners were displayed in all major cities, especially during Ganeshotsav. Most of the illegal banners and posters were of political parties, Warunjikar added.