Kochi: The Kerala High Court has directed the state government to immediately remove every illegal billboard erected in public spaces.
It is the right of a citizen to have a pleasing environment and any action by perpetrators to defy this for selfish and vested reasons must attract sufficient penalties, said Justice Devan Ramachandran.
The court had constituted committees at various levels to tackle the menace of the illegal boards. It directed the committees to impose a penalty of Rs 5,000 per illegal billboard in addition to the expenses for its removal and to initiate prosecution of wrongdoers.
The court said that even though it had given sufficient leeway and time for the removal of the billboards by the persons who installed them, the factum of them still continuing on the streets would clearly show a lack of respect for the law by these persons.
The court gave seven days "to enable every person who has installed the boards illegally to remove them voluntarily and on their own volition, so as to avert the rigour of penalty and prosecution, if they are so interested."
The court noted that if the penalty was imposed on the unauthorised billboards as per the law, the State could have benefited by crores of rupees.
"When our State is going through stated financial constraints -- which is evident from various other cases that come to the notice of this court -- one fails to understand how this source of revenue can be given up, particularly when thousands of boards have been removed on a regular basis; and going by the statistics furnished in this case from its inception, the number of boards already removed would perhaps be running into several lakhs," the order read.
The court also directed that FIRs be filed against those who have created or erected such illegal boards and every other individual involved.
With inputs from PTI