The Madras High Court on Friday said the Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam (PDK) may put up placards and flags on its own premises but not in any public place, consequent to the notification of Assembly elections.
The First Bench, comprising Chief Justice M.Y. Eqbal and Justice T.S. Sivagnanam, passed the order while disposing of a writ petition by the PDK, represented by its Erode District secretary Rama Elangovan.
The organisation sought to quash an order of March 18 of the District Collector-cum-District Election Officer, Erode, by which it was directed to remove the signboards carrying the sayings of ‘Thanthai Periyar' and black paint on flag posts after the Election Commission (EC) notified the elections.
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The signboards were removed and the flagposts taken away by officials. The petitioner said such a direction was arbitrary and without authority of law.
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The PDK made a request to the Erode District Collector to exclude the petitioner's institutions from the model code of conduct during the period of election and permit it to put up placards and flagposts in public places since it was not in any way connected with the elections. The request was rejected.
Senior counsel appearing for the EC submitted that the organisation was using the public road for putting up banners, placards, flagposts etc and canvassing in elections, which was disputed by the petitioner's counsel.
The Bench said: “Admittedly, no permission was obtained by the petitioner for putting up placards, flags, flagposts, etc on the public road. In any view of the matter, the petitioner may put up placards, flags, flagposts etc within its own premises, but not in any public place.”