The ban on political messaging in Tamil Nadu was reinforced by the Supreme Court on Monday, which directed the Tamil Nadu government to take preventive measures. The court reportedly said that public places such as hills, hillocks, and medians of highways are not to be defaced with political messages.
Earlier this month, the court heard a special leave petition filed by lawyer and activist Elephant G Rajendran, who had sought a judicial order to disqualify electoral candidates who do not remove their political advertisements from natural structures such as mountains and hills. According to CNN News18, the plea had sought that political graffiti and advertisements on natural resources be prevented.
Last month, a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and comprising of Justices SA Nazeer and Sanjiv Khanna said, “We will not allow the defacement of public places and properties with advertisements and slogans of political parties.” At the time, they asked the Tamil Nadu government about the steps it was taking to prevent such defacement.
On January 11, the Supreme Court had issued a notice to the Tamil Nadu government and the Centre directing them to restrict parties from erecting digital banners.
In December last year, the Madras High Court had ordered that no registered or unregistered political party in the state should erect flex boards in a manner that causes inconvenience to pedestrians and motorists. This came after repeated directions to the government, local bodies, and police officials to regulate the display of flex boards on roadsides in accordance with the law.
A 2017 ruling of the Madras High Court banned hoardings and flex boards which featured living persons. However, the ruling AIADMK, as well as several other parties in the state have repeatedly violated rules to erect large cut-outs of political leaders, blocking footpaths in the state.
Source: The News Minute