Rooftop media returns in Patna for Bihar Assembly Elections’ campaigning

The rooftop display sites prohibited under Section 3 of Bihar Prevention of Defacement Act, 1987, have made a comeback after Patna High Court granted permission.

Century Group of Companies, recently been awarded outdoor media duties by Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) as part of Bihar Assembly Elections 2020 campaign, had filed a writ petition in the high court requesting to bring rooftop hoardings back in use for the outdoor display.

It is learnt that while hearing the writ petition, a single bench of Justice Ashutosh Kumar has delivered the judgement that the rooftop media available in the capital of Bihar can be used for display purpose. However, the justice also specified that the permission is restricted to political parties.

Shashi Chaudhary, MD, Century Group of Companies, said, “We have got the biggest campaign of the season i.e. BJP party promotion for the Assembly election. The campaign, designed for 950 hoarding sites across Bihar, will be executed on all key formats such as hoardings, unipoles, bus shelters, wall wraps, and various other important formats. Considering the magnitude of the campaign, rooftop hoarding format is quite essential. Therefore, we decided to approach the higher authority to have legal permissions in place. 

Century Group of Companies used the reference of Jharkhand, a similar local law with respect to defacement of property and Chief Electoral Officer of Jharkhand permitted it.

The Patna High Court expressed that this would once again deface the city with promotional banners. To which, the Century Group of companies showed the benefit that allowing hoardings would help in controlled campaigning and prevent public gatherings amidst the Covid19 pandemic.

“We are thankful to Patna High court and the justice for understanding the need for the rooftop sites for this campaign. The outdoor campaign will help the national party in creating required presence in the city through rallies without hindering necessary protocols imposed to control Covid19 such as social distancing. We will ensure that the given permission will be used at its best under the conditions laid down by the high court,” Shashi added.