The Bombay High Court on Thursday issued show cause notices to Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray, and four others, asking why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against them regarding illegal hoardings across the city.
The leaders had given undertakings to the court last year that they or their party members will not put up hoardings in the city without seeking necessary permissions from the local authorities.
Irked by illegal hoardings at many places in the city, the Bombay High Court on Thursday issued the show cause notices.
“We are shocked to see that despite having submitted an undertaking, political parties and leaders are still indulging in display of illegal hoardings and banners. In one instance a poster has been displayed without permission from the civic body by the state government's women and child welfare department. This is shocking,” the division bench of Justices A.S. Oka and A.K. Menon said.
The notices have been issued to Mr. Thackeray, another MNS leader Bala Nandgaonkar, BJP leaders Ashish Shelar and Mukund Kulkarni, and NCP's Shivaji Ghajre. They have been asked why action should not be initiated against them for contempt of court.
All of them have to reply to the notice by May 7.
The court also directed the Secretary of State Woman and Child Welfare department to find out the officer responsible for putting up the illegal hoarding. The department will have to tell the court about the action initiated against the errant officer.
Meanwhile, the civic authorities expressed their inability to take action against such illegal hoardings. Its counsel told the court that such hoardings were put up by the ruling political parties too.
Last year, BJP, NCP and MNS had told the court that they would refrain from putting up any illegal hoardings in the city. They gave this undertaking when the court was hearing a Public Interest Litigation against such hoardings and banners.
