Mumbai : The High Court on Thursday pulled up the State Government and Shiv Sena for not abiding by the orders of the court. The court also warned of taking stern action as nearly 90% of political parties are not following the court orders.
A division bench of Justice Abhay Oka and Justice Shalini Phansalkar – Joshi was hearing a bunch of PILs advocating removal of illegal hoardings put up by political parties across Mumbai and Pune.
Irritated by the continuous flouting of norms by political parties, the bench said, “Despite us passing orders and asking political parties not to put illegal banners, posters and hoardings in the city, political parties have turned a deaf ear. None of them are abiding by the law, rather they are making a mockery of the court’s orders.”
“It seems we have to take a strict action against them, else this will continue. Henceforth, if any breach of orders is observed, the court will instantly issue ‘contempt of court’ notices,” the Justice further added.
During the hearings, Uday Warunjikar representing the petitioner informed the court of the illegal hoardings put up by almost all the political parties on pretext of celebrating ‘Marathi Bhasha Diwas’ on February 27.
As informed by Warunjikar in the last hearing about illegal posters of Shiv Sena leader displayed on the pillars across the NM Joshi Marg in Parel, the court had asked the Sena lawyer to name the leader so that a contempt notice can be issued but the lawyer Vishwajeet Sawant had assured that the posters will be removed within a day. But on Thursday, Sawant asked Warunjikar to provide with photos of the posters so that the same can be removed.
Sawant also suggested to the court that instead of people (civilians) directly filing petitions in the court, they should first intimate the concerned political parties about their illegal banners. If the parties do not take action on their complaints, then they should move to courts.
Citing the argument of BMC lawyer Anil Sakhre, who informed about two BMC officers beaten up by a political party’s workers when they were removing illegal hoardings of the party, the court said, “When political parties workers can assault Municipal Corporation officers for removing their illegal hoardings, then what is the guarantee that civilians won’t be harmed for complaining about the parties of their own illegal banners?. Is it so easy for a common man to enter in a political party’s office to complain about the party?”
Sakhre also informed the court that an FIR has been registered against unknown persons for assaulting the BMC workers.
Further, the BMC lawyer also brought to the court’s notice that as the court has earlier ordered the government to provide police security to BMC officers who would remove illegal hoardings, but the government has failed to comply with the courts orders.
The court came down heavily on the government and asked them to comply with the orders and also asked the senior inspector of Deonar Police station along with the investigating officer of the BMC workers assault case to be present in the court for Friday’s hearings.
