Decade-old PIL on wall defacements closed

The petition, which has been persisting for nearly a decade, had sought for stringent action to prevent religious symbols, political graffiti and advertisements being painted on mountains, hills, avenue trees, median of roads, walls and other public property. The first bench comprising Chief Justice Huluvadi G Ramesh and Justice R Mahadevan while closing the main petition as well as a contempt plea relating to government inaction in removing the defacement said.

“Government has got to do a better business. Government is an executive and decisions have to be taken by it. Wherever violations exist the court can interfere and direct to keep the things in an orderly manner. We can’t say that the government has not taken any action. Already a committee has been constituted. You can’t expect the government to act overnight.” The bench also noted “As submitted by the additional advocate general it may not be possible to take steps immediately because of the lack of official staff and other machinery. The violations if any may be placed before the committee by the petitioner which shall take note of it and do the needful.” 

Interestingly, the earlier chief justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul had slammed official lethargy on the whole issue by asking the authorities to act and provide visible changes. He made sure that violators paid and that the offenders would face contempt charge. While hearing a contempt plea, the then chief justice had also directed the political parties to clear wall defacements made by them within a month after civic authorities issued notice to them. At one stage, he also directed that the restrictions imposed by the Election Commission against illegal hoardings and defacement of public properties during the 2016 Assembly elections shall continue even after the elections, till further orders from the court.