AAP government today told Delhi High Court it was reconsidering its entire policy on advertisements on public service vehicles (PSVs), including autorickshaws, and sought three months time to come up with a decision.
A bench of justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Vibhu Bakhru, however, granted the Delhi government time till April to take a decision, saying three months was too much.
The government's submission was made in two PILs, filed on behalf of some auto unions challenging the policy on display of advertisements on PSVs, and in which the court has already reserved its verdict.
The court has taken up the matter now as it wanted to know whether the current government on its own would address the issues raised by the petitioners.
Advocate Govind Jee, appearing for the petitioners, said they had only two grievances--requirement of prior approval from municipal authorities and prohibition on "political advertisements". He contended that reconsideration of these aspects should not take much time.
The earlier government had refused to remove the word "political" from the guidelines.
In June 2013, the then Delhi government had banned advertisements on PSVs after auto-rickshaws started sporting Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) posters in the run-up to the Delhi assembly elections. Thereafter, the high court had stayed the Delhi government's ban.
Subsequently, in May 2014, the city government had informed the court that it was in the process of finalising the general guidelines for allowing advertisements on public service vehicles and it was awaiting approval of the Lt Governor.
On August 1, 2014, the government had placed before the court its latest guidelines for display of advertisements on PSVs, as per which advertisements containing political, ethnic, religious or sectarian text will not be permitted.
The policy also stated that advertisements cannot be displayed without prior approval of municipal bodies and would be allowed only for vehicles which have installed GPS/GPRS systems.
The court, thereafter, reserved its judgement on September 19, 2014, and, while doing so it said, it would decide three issues--whether political advertisement should be allowed on public service vehicles, their pre-censorship and on the issue that advertisements will be allowed only for vehicles having GPS and GPRS systems.
