The Karnataka High Court on Thursday asked the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) not to take any precipitative action based on the policy decision taken to ban all out-door advertisements for one year and also based on communications sent by the BBMP holding that advertisement agencies had put up hoardings without obtaining any written permission.
A single judge bench of Justice G. Narendar passed the interim order on petitions filed by Pacific Advertising and others.
Clarification sought
The judge asked the court’s registry to seek a clarification on the administrative side on whether these petitions filed by advertisement agencies should be heard by a single judge bench as per the subject roaster or by a division bench, which is monitoring the process of removal of banners, flexes and hoardings put up illegally across the city.
The petitioner-advertisement agencies had questioned the August 6 resolution passed by the BBMP imposing a one-year ban on outdoor advertisement as well as the August 27 order passed by the jurisdictional officers rejecting their claim that hoardings put up by them were ‘legal’.
The petitioner-agencies claimed that the BBMP could not have totally banned advertisements contrary to the by-laws of 2016, which imposed specific restrictions.
The jurisdictional officers had passed the order on the responses submitted by petitioner-advertisement agencies for the public notice issued by the BBMP asking property owners and advertisement agencies to submit documents to prove that the advertisement hoardings and structures were put up by obtaining necessary permission from the BBMP.
The public notice was issued after a division bench, headed by the Chief Justice, pulled up the BBMP for its inaction against illegal hoardings. The BBMP had claimed before the court that it had not issued any new permission or renewed any permission since 2016.
