Mumbai: The Bombay high court has directed the removal of hoardings from airport land at Juhu on the grounds that they were put up on Airport Authority of India land without proper permissions from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).
The petitioner Palm Grove Hotels had prayed for removal of the hoardings as they were spoiling the view of the area and were violative of BMC and traffic police rules. While disposing off two petitions in this regard the court directed the BMC to remove the hoardings within seven days.
A division bench of justices S.C. Dharmadhikari and Bharati Dangare was hearing writ petitions filed by the hotel and Selvel publicity claiming that the hoardings constructed hoardings by Guju Ads were put up without having requisite permissions from all concerned authorities.
The hotel had also argued that the hoardings was obstructing the view of the hotel and hence the hoardings should be removed.
According to senior advocate Kiran Jain who appeared on behalf of Selvel, even though there were no proper permissions from the BMC, traffic department, environment and coastal regulation department, Guju Ads had put up the hoardings. He further informed the court that despite a previous court order asking all parties involved to maintain a status quo, work on constructing the hoardings had gone on resulting in contempt of court orders.
When the bench asked about the permissions, the BMC and the police department said they had not given any permission for the construction of the hoardings. However, the counsel for Guju Ads argued that they had secured rights to construct hoardings from the AAI and hence there was nothing wrong on their part.
After hearing all parties, the bench held that the BMC being the authority to permit any construction in the city even though the land may belong to a government body, the absence of any permission from them implied that the hoardings were put up illegally and hence directed their removal within seven days.
