Karnataka HC restrains BBMP from enforcing blanket ban on outdoor media

The Karnataka High Court has passed an interim order stating that the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) shall not take any precipitative action based on the civic body’s policy decision taken to ban all outdoor advertisements in the city of Bengaluru for one year. The single judge bench of Justice G. Narendar, while hearing the petitions filed by a group of outdoor advertising firms, has also asked the civic body not take the action as per the communications sent by BBMP citing that the advertisement agencies had put up hoardings without obtaining any written permission.

The petitioners had questioned the August 6 resolution passed by the BBMP imposing a one-year ban on outdoor advertisement as well as the August 27 order passed by the jurisdictional officers rejecting their claim that hoardings put up by them were ‘legal’. The petitioner-agencies claimed that the BBMP could not have totally banned advertisements contrary to the by-laws of 2016, which imposed specific restrictions.

The jurisdictional officers had passed the order on the responses submitted by petitioner-advertisement agencies for the public notice issued by the BBMP asking property owners and advertisement agencies to submit documents to prove that the advertisement hoardings and structures were put up by obtaining necessary permission from the BBMP.

The BBMP had earlier claimed before the court that it had not issued any new permission or renewed any permission since 2016.

It was reported by The Hindu that the judge asked the court’s registry to seek a clarification on the administrative side on whether the petitions filed by advertisement agencies should be heard by a single judge bench as per the subject roaster or by a division bench, which is monitoring the process of removal of banners, flexes and hoardings put up illegally across the city.