The Madras High Court has issued notice to authorities, including the Chief Electoral Officer, Tamil Nadu, on a petition seeking a ban on erecting flagpoles of political parties permanently or temporarily in public places.
A division bench, comprising Justices N Kirubakarn and M V Muralidharan, before which a petition from social activist A Radhakrishnan came up Thursday, directed the authorities to submit their replies in four weeks.
The petitioner submitted that one of the guidelines of the State Election Commission was removal of flagpoles of all political parties already erected in public places.
The commission had earlier issued a direction to the police and revenue officials to remove the flagpoles and hoardings.
Alleging that most of the parties encroached upon roadsides, parks, playgrounds and common places without government permission, erected flagpoles permanently and hoisted the flags, the petitioner said they posed a hindrance to traffic.
Sometimes, they also caused sharp differences between different parties and lead to clashes that could be a law and order problem, he submitted
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