Remove illegal hoardings in 8 wks: HC asks civic bodies

Delhi High Court today directed the municipal corporations to remove all illegal hoardings at public and private advertisement sites in the national capital within eight weeks by uniformly applying the 2007 Outdoor Advertising Policy.
A bench of justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Sanjeev Sachdeva gave the corporations eight weeks time to comply with its direction that it had initially issued on May 6 this year and whose implementation it has been monitoring since then.
"Implementation of our May 6, 2015, direction be complied with in eight weeks and while doing so the municipal corporations to ensure implementation is in accordance with OAP 2007, Delhi Prevention of Defacement of Property Act 2009, Delhi Municipal Corporation Act and bye-laws made thereunder without any deviation, discrimination and uniformly without discriminating between private and public sites," it said.

The court passed the order after several individual applications were filed alleging that the corporations were not applying or implementing the Outdoor Advertising Policy (OAP) 2007 uniformly.
It was alleged that the policy was being applied in a "blanket" manner on all private sites as the corporations were not getting revenue from them.
The court disposed of all these applications saying the applicants if aggrieved with the implementation of OAP 2007, could move the appropriate authority.

The court was hearing a PIL filed by Col (retd) Shivraj Kumar, an 83-year-old resident of the city, who has contended that advertisement hoardings, banners, posters and billboards, of any size, were being put up on residential buildings in violation of the policy and the Delhi Prevention of Defacement of Property Act.

The court also directed removal of the superstructures which are left behind after the hoardings are taken off, saying they be either removed by the corporations or the occupant of the premises where they have been put up.
The direction was given after the counsel for petitioner told the court that the structures left behind after removal of the advertisement were also dangerous as they could fall on someone.