The Supreme Court today asked Coca Cola to pay Rs 30 lakh and Pepsi Rs 15 lakh as part payment for the restoration of the Himalayan rocks, which were painted for their advertisements on the Kullu-Manali-Rohtang Pass Road in Himachal Pradesh.
The total cost of restoration will be around Rs 5 crore and it will be contributed proportionately by the companies that painted the rocks.
The court today issued notices to the companies asking them to show-cause why punitive or exemplary cost should not be imposed on them, in addition to the restoration cost.
The other major companies that have to pay includes MBD book publishers (Rs 30 lakh), Grasim (Rs 10 lakh), Amaron (Rs 2.5 lakh), State Bank of India and Sleepwell (Rs 1.25 lakh each). These companies will have to pay the amount within 10 days to the central empowered committee under P V Jaikrishnan. Apart from these, there are a large number of big and small companies, which had painted some 400 advertisements on the rocks.
The committee will give a comprehensive list of these companies by the next date of hearing. The Bench headed by Chief Justice B N Kirpal is considering whether the punitive cost should be made according to the area of advertisements used by the individual companies or according to their annual turnover.
The counsel will have to address the court on this point. Pepsi counsel Arun Jaitley submitted that the company was not aware of these advertisements and that they were done by its bottlers.
Coke counsel Anil Divan said the extent of damage must be assessed by a panel consisting of a botanist, geologist and an environmentalist. They might find out whether the damage was serious or not.
MBD, which is the biggest violator with nearly 100 ads, said even the public works department (PWD), state water and forest departments had used the rock faces for their advertisements, apart from multinationals like Airtel and Union Carbide.
