HC not happy with action on illegal banners

The observation, made by a division bench comprising Justice M. Sathyanarayanan and Justice M Nirmal Kumar on a contempt petition moved by Social Activist Traffic K. Ramaswamy wherein he had moved additional affidavits with photographs dated January 29, February 11 and a news articles published in a Tamil daily on February 25.

The bench said “In the news item, a photograph of Gandhi Road has been printed and it discloses huge digital banners been put up by the ruling party functionaries and on the other side, a huge stage, thereby blocking the traffic movement on the road that day.”

“The said material would prima facie disclose that whatever assurances given to this Court through the Additional Advocate General had gone along the wind and so far, no proper and effective mechanism has been put in place to prevent unauthorized erection of digital banners,” the bench added.

Further, the bench while describing the length and breadth of the digital banners erected in its order said “The photographs annexed to the Sub-Applications as well as additional affidavits would disclose that the digital banners would have taken considerable time to erect it right on the arterial roads of various towns/cities and despite that, the concerned authorities appear to have turned blind for reasons unknown and the only explanation offered was that cases are registered  against the violators.”