Mumbai : The Bombay High Court on Friday expressed displeasure over the failure of municipal councils in submitting their compliance report on action taken against illegal hoardings. The non-submission of report suggested that there was failure in complying with the previous orders of the court on removing illegal hoardings.
A division bench of Justice Abhay Oka and Justice A K Menon was hearing a public interest litigation filed against illegal hoardings in the state.
The court said the State is not helpless, it can issue directions towards its officers, and if they do not comply, the State can take action against them. The State can issue directions to municipal corporations to take action against illegal hoardings. The court has once again asked the State to issue directions to its officers and municipal corporations and file a compliance report before them by March 15.
The court also threatened it will direct the State to take action against the councils under Maharashtra Municipal Council Act, where the State has power to dissolve them.
In the previous order, the court had appointed advocates as commissioners to visit various places in the State and prepare a list of illegal hoardings and file a reply on action taken against them by civic bodies.
Earlier, the court had ordered all civic bodies to have a toll-free number to enable people to register complaints against illegal hoardings. The court had observed that it is not possible to implement the order without participation of citizens and hence the court asked all the municipal corporations to give wide publicity to all the toll-free numbers on which citizens can call to complain about illegal hoardings. The court said that apart from giving advertisements in newspapers and news channels, municipal corporations should also print numbers in ward offices and other corporation offices.