'Removal of flag poles in rural areas alone not enough'

Recording the submission, a division bench comprising Justice S Manikumar and Justice Subramonium Prasad reiterated that the rule applies not only to rural areas but also to urban areas and insisted that all flag poles ought to be removed throughout the State and not merely from rural areas.

Earlier, the Additional Government Pleader submitted that the Rural Development Department has submitted details pertaining to 31 districts barring Kanniyakumari and a mere 799 were left to be removed. However, he said more than 5,000 poles were identified in Chennai district, and the process of removing them has commenced.

This was countered by the counsel appearing for the Election Commission, Niranjan Rajagopal, stating that reports from only 21 districts have been obtained. In Kanniyakumari and Thoothukudi districts, certain flagpoles could not be removed following court orders. He said wherever there was a court order the code of conduct does not apply.

Appearing for the National Highways, advocate Richard Wilson submitted that the stated position as per rules was that no flag pole was allowed on the National Highways and violators were liable for penal action.

He said efforts were on to obtain local police support wherever they faced problems in removing them.

An order offered by the first bench of the Madras High Court in 2016 regarding the removal of such flag poles, be it election time or otherwise, was also cited for sustaining the removal and ensure that the flag posts do not resurface after polls.

The bench reiterated that removal of flag poles in rural areas alone was not enough, and posted the plea to April 1 after directing the State to submit a comprehensive report about the flag poles removed in both rural and urban areas.