Cautioning the State government and the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) not to take the issue of illegal flexes and hoardings lightly, the High Court of Karnataka on Thursday expressed its serious displeasure over the absence of a provision in the proposed bye-law to penalise those who erect flexes and hoardings unauthorisedly in public places.
The problem of illegal flexes and advertisement faced in Bengaluru has been a bone of contention as well as a bone of suffering by all for a very long, and even in the proposed bylaws, there is no provision to penalise those who erect flexes and hoardings illegally; the Court pointed out.
PIL petition
A division bench comprising Chief Justice N.V. Anjaria and Justice K.V. Aravind made these observations while hearing the PIL petition, which the court suo motu had initiated in July this year on the failure of the BBMP to prevent illegal hoardings despite several directions issued by the Court in the PIL petitions, filed way back in 2017, which had complained about menace of illegal advertisement hoardings, flexes, etc., across the city.
The Bench pointed out that the bye-law 15 (1) (iii) of the proposed Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (Advertisement) Bye-laws, 2024 has a provision that states that apart from the removal of illegal hoardings erected or displayed on private property, the owner of the property is liable to pay the penalty as prescribed in the bye-law.
“However, to the dismay of the Court, the proposed bylaws do not provide any such penalty in respect of public places like footpaths, public roads, etc., except making provisions for removing them without issuing any written notice,” the Bench observed.
There has to be a deterrent factor for those who indulge in the rampant erection of unauthorised advertisement hoardings and flexes to encroach upon endangering the vehicular traffic and the public at large, the Bench said while asking both the Government and the BBMP to come up with an effective response taking of dissatisfaction expressed by it.
Provisions of bylaws
The Bench made these remarks after going through the provisions of the BBMP (Advertisement) Bye-Laws, 2024, which the Court wanted to peruse before being finally notified in the gazette for being implemented in the city. The Court had earlier restrained the Government and the BBMP from notifying the final bylaws without its prior permission.
The court, in its earlier directions, had made it clear that “it is expected that the bylaws will inter alia include the penal stipulations which would have a deterrent effect and operate as a preventive factor against the easy-going defaulters and wrongdoers.”
Further hearing adjourned till January 16, 2025.
Published – December 13, 2024 12:02 am IST