Remove all illegal hoardings, banners in Puducherry: Madras HC

CHENNAI: Observing that the act of erecting banners and hoardings is against the directions of Madras High Court and the Supreme Court, a vacation bench of Madras HC on Friday directed the Puducherry UT to remove all the flexes, banners and hoardings which were allegedly raised to welcome home minister Amit Shah during his recent visit the Union Territory.

“The Supreme Court and High Court have given various directions against the illegal hoardings and flex boards. Therefore, the Puducherry UT should remove those materials immediately,” the bench comprising Justice R Mahadevan and Justice S Ananthi observed.

The bench passed the direction on hearing a petition filed by GA Jagannathan, a former panchayat president of Kariyambakkam village panchayat in the Puducherry district.

The petitioner sought to take action against officials who failed to remove the flex, banners, and hoardings erected during the visit of home minister Amit Shah on April 24.

“Even as the first bench headed by Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari passed a direction to the Puducherry Municipality to remove all the banners and collect the removal cost from people who erected such illegal hoardings, it was not implemented by the municipality,” the petitioner submitted.

He further submitted that about 2500 banners are still kept along the roadsides and public places of the Puducherry UT. “The banners which were kept by the contractors on a contract basis have been removed. However, the banners and flex boards raised by politicians have not been removed till now,” Jagannathan submitted.

On recording the submissions, the judges directed the Puducherry UT to file a report within two weeks explaining the details of its action to discard the illegal flexes, banners and hoardings from the Puducherry municipality.