Law prohibiting hoardings on private land struck down

Quashing the phrase “belonging to the Corporation” from the impugned provisions that had come into effect from February 1, 2019, the first bench comprising Chief Justice AP Sahi and Justice Subramonium Prasad said merely because the Municipal Corporation officials are unable to manage the monitoring of hoardings, it cannot be a ground to exclude and classify private land or government land as untouchable and unavailable.

“This clearly amounts to prohibition and such curtailment also hits the fundamental rights of a private landowner to enjoy his property. It is not necessary that every land belonging to the Corporation is suitable for setting up of a hoarding. But then, creating a monopoly in its favour clearly amounts to allowing a Municipal Corporation to raise hoardings only on its lands wherever it chooses,” the bench said.

Also, observing that there cannot be a logical presumption that there would be no violations if hoardings were set up exclusively on Corporation land, the bench led by the Chief Justice said there was no rationality in the contention.

“The counsel for the petitioners are right in their submission that there is no rational nexus with the object sought to be achieved by placing such a ban on utilisation of land other than Corporation land,” the bench said.

“To our mind, this will generate a cartel and concentrate the business in the hands of a few who would be getting contracts from the municipal department to exclusively monopolise in this business at the cost of an unconstitutional provision, as rightly submitted by the counsel for the petitioners,” the bench added.

This, therefore, was a clear case where the impugned phrase “belonging to the Corporation” was manifestly arbitrary and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution and also impinges upon the fundamental rights guaranteed under Article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution of India.

The bench also directed the Corporation to frame appropriate bylaws in tune with the guidelines formulated by the State already, within a month, so that the process of licensing was not delayed any further.