Madras HC restrains parties from erecting digital banners on roadsides in TN

The Madras High Court Wednesday restrained political parties from erecting digital banners on roadsides across Tamil Nadu till further orders.

A division bench of Justices M Sathyanarayanan and P Rajamanickam issued the interim order while hearing a contempt petition by social activist 'Traffic' Ramasamy seeking to punish officials for 'failure' to implement the court orders against unauthorised banners.

Unless the state government and the local bodies come out with a clear undertaking that the rules and various orders passed by the court would be strictly implemented and no violation would take place, all political parties shall not put up any digital banners on the sides of the roads across the state till further orders.

Such banners distract the road users, especially two-wheeler riders and obstruct pedestrians, the bench said.

During the hearing of the contempt plea Tuesday, the court had expressed displeasure over the unjustified reasons given by authorities in the past five years for failing to implement court orders regarding unauthorised banners.