Taking serious view of defacement of public places in the city, the Madras High Court today directed the state government to invoke penal provisions in case any fresh violation was detected.
The First Bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice R Mahadevan, was hearing a submission of an advocate about fresh defacements.
In in its interim order, the court said: "...The moment any defacement is detected, the penal provision should be invoked and the collectors and police authorities should be informed that this direction issued by the government has the imprimatur of the court by today's order and thus, any violation of the same would be on the pain of contempt."
The matter relates to a PIL by the Madras High Advocate 'Elephant' Rajendran who sought a court direction to authorities to prevent religious symbols, political graffiti and advertisements being painted on mountains, hills, avenue trees, median of roads and walls.
After granting three months time to the state government as per the request by Additional Advocate General P H Arvind Pandian to collect information regarding action against defacement, the bench said, "While granting the period of three months as sought to collate information, we would also like to have information regarding action taken in respect of fresh defacement immediately and thus, for that purpose, we list the matter on the next date for submission of report."
The bench then posted the matter to July 19.
The state government had as per a government order dated February 26, constituted a committee of five members headed by the Secretary, Home, Prohibition, and Excise Department for monitoring the progress of removal of defacement of open places.
