Karnataka High Court quashes ban on outdoor advertising display in Bengaluru

The OOH media owners doing business in Bengaluru have got a relief from the one-year ban imposed by Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) following a High Court of Karnataka order issued yesterday. With this HC order, passed exactly seven months after the BBMP had enforced the ban on outdoor media in the city of Bengaluru, all authorised sites in the city will be permitted to display advertisements as under Advertisement Bye-laws 2006, until a new ad policy come into the force. The Court order comes after several petitions had been filed with the Court by media owners in the city who hold licenses issued by BBMP for outdoor advertising.

Last year, a public notice was issued by the BBMP stating that advertising agencies had been found to have violated various provisions of the Advertisement Bye-Laws 2006 and by such action, have been acting to the detriment of the environment and causing nuisance. BBMP had maintained that a fresh advertising policy would be issued, and pending the formulation of a new policy the registration and renewals of licences for advertising agencies and hoardings would be temporarily suspended until further orders. It was further notified that applications for registration/renewals of licences would be invited in accordance with the Bye-laws to be framed. On this, the Court maintained that the  BBMP stance was in conflict with the right of those holding authorised media to display advertisements on their respective media.

The petitioners on their part have maintained in their petitions that they have complied with the BBMP ad norms, provisions of the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act, 1976 and the Advertisement Bye-laws 2006, enabling them to carry on business in commercial outdoor advertisement. The media owners also contended that they have paid taxes pursuant to demand raised in some of the matters and in such matters where demands were not raised, they have calculated and remitted appropriate tax.