Illegal Hoardings: Non-appearance by political parties annoys High Court

MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court today expressed displeasure over "no show" by lawyers or representatives of political parties which had been asked to appear in the hearing on public interest litigations against illegal hoardings, banners and posters in public places.

The bench headed by Justice Abhay Oka had last week issued notices to prominent political parties but no lawyer representing any of them turned up today.

The bench issued fresh notices seeking appearance of representatives of political parties on July 24 without fail.

Last week, the court had slammed the municipal corporations in Maharashtra for not filing compliance reports on its earlier order to remove the illegal hoardings.

The court has also made the Election Commission of India a party and asked its representative to appear at next hearing.

On February 21, another bench of the High Court had asked the municipal bodies to file compliance reports on the steps taken to remove illegal hoardings, prosecute the culprits and to recover taxes and fines.

Advocate Uday Warunjikar, lawyer for one of the petitioners, pointed out a March 15, 2013 order which had asked for removal of illegal hoardings within 48 hours.