Recover removal costs from those who erected banners for welcoming Amit Shah: HC to Pondy municipality

Chennai: The Madras High Court on Thursday granted liberty to Puducherry municipality to recover the cost spent for removing the flexes and banners erected for welcoming Home Minister Amit Shah who recently visited the Union Territory of Puducherry.

The first bench comprising Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy passed the direction on hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by G A Jaganathan, a resident of Puducherry.

The petitioner, through his counsel M Gnanasekar, prayed for a direction from the court to take action against people who erected hundreds of flexes and banners to welcome the HM last week.

The litigant further informed the court that the apathy is that the municipality of Puducherry did not take any action against such act of erecting illegal flex and banners despite he made a representation.

The Puducherry UT's counsel submitted that the administration had removed all the flexes and banners erected during the visit of Union Minister Amit Shah.

Jaganathan noted that there is a drastic increase in the culture of pasting posters and erecting flex banners in Puducherry in recent times.

On recording the submissions, CJ MN Bhandari granted liberty to recover the cost incurred by the local body administration to remove the flexes and banners from people who kept those materials on the roads and streets of Puducherry.

It is noted that the Madras HC had passed a similar direction to the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) to collect the amount spent for removing the illegal posters pasted by the candidates who contested the urban local body elections for the seats in GCC in February 2022.