Mumbai: After SC orders, BMC stop taking action against shops with no Marathi signboards

Mumbai: After the Supreme Court's order, The Brihanmumbai Municipal Coporation (BMC) has stopped action against establishments for not putting up Marathi signboards from Saturday.

Confirming the news, civic officia said, "We have inspected only 5% of shops across the city and has found 80 % of them putting Marathi signboards. So we only served a notice to shops and gave them time to put Marathi boards. We will follow the court order and not take action till the given date."

There are around five lakh shops in the city. In last one month the civic teams have visited 27,180 shops out of which 80% had signboards in Marathi. While notices were served to 5,011 violators.

The amendment states

As per the amendment in the Maharashtra Shops and Establishments (Regulation of Employment and Condition of Service) Act, 2017, all shops in Mumbai should mandatorily display Marathi signboards in Devanagari script.

It is also mentioned that the font size of the letters in the Marathi language should be prominently visible and should be larger than the fonts of other languages that are being used on the signboards.

After extending the deadlines for 3 times, BMC started action against the shops

After extending the deadlines for three times till September 30, the BMC had started its action against the shops that violated the norms.

As per the act, the civic body had imposed fine for violation is Rs. 2,000 per employee of the shop. According to Act the BMC can fine the shops and settle the matter if the shops display boards in Marathi without filing court cases.

Meanwhile, the Federation of Retail Traders Welfare Association (FRTWA) challenged the constitutionality of the amendment. The apex court has put a stay on BMC's action till December 18.

Published on: Saturday, November 05, 2022, 09:22 PM IST