Hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by social activist “Traffic” Ramaswamy, a division bench comprising Justices P K Misra and K Chandru took up for deliberations the recommendations made by court-appointed senior advocate Mohan on the issue. In his detailed report, the advocate called for immediate removal of unauthorised hoardings and banners installed on roadsides which had created hassles for pedestrians.

Investigation

He also called for an investigation into how such illegal hoardings were given permission to come up at busy junctions.  When the court resumed hearing on Friday, government counsel sought time to respond to the irectives. Following this, the bench ordered the government to pull down all illegally erected digital hoardings in Tamil Nadu within two weeks.

Meanwhile, police throughout the State have started removing hoardings and banners put up mostly by political parties. The police crack-down follows a recent government directive that such hoardings and banners should be put up only three days before any event and removed two days thereafter.

The directive comes on the eve of the 60th birthday of AIADMK general secretary and former Chief Minister J Jayalalitha on February 24. Already, party cadres have put up hoardings all over the State well ahead of the event.