Mumbai hoarding collapse: Few FIRs filed despite many complaints, how Bombay HC pulled up authorities for inaction 

The HC has been pulling up civic and police authorities for over a decade for their inaction despite assurances given to the court.

In June, 2022, the BMC had submitted before HC that while 1,399 prosecution complaint letters were sent in 2019 to respective police stations, nearly 208 FIRs were registered in Mumbai. Moreover, in 2020, 866 letters were sent by authority and a mere 94 FIRs were registered. In 2021, 943 letters were sent to police and only 18 FIRs were registered. In 2022, over 680 complaint letters have been sent of which little over 13 have resulted in the filing of FIRs.

The bench led by then Chief Justice Dipankar Datta (currently a Supreme Court judge) had termed non-registration of sufficient FIRs as an ‘alarming’ situation.” We want to know in how many cases, the constables on their own gave complaints about illegal hoardings etc… Unless we stop the activities at the source, our directions will just remain on paper,” the bench had said.

On February 21, this year, the civic body had submitted that between January 1 to December 31, 2023, as many as 10,839 political banners, 4,551 commercial and 32, 481 religious banners were removed and for taking actions against all such illegal hoardings and banners, letters had been sent to concerned police stations in 410 cases, however only 22 FIRs towards these had been registered.

On February 21, this year, the civic body had submitted that between January 1 to December 31, 2023, as many as 10,839 political banners, 4,551 commercial and 32, 481 religious banners were removed. (Express Photo by Sankhadeep Banerjee)

The bench led by present Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya had said that “no individual or a group, be it a political party, commercial organisation or religious denomination, can be legally permitted to utilise public spaces, such as footpaths, streetlights and roads, for personal gains and advertisement”.

The HC had also appealed to the general public to “wake up to the situation’ and not to indulge in illegality, having the potential of even causing physical harm to pedestrians and other users of roads”.

The HC has been hearing a batch of pleas including a contempt plea initiated by the High Court itself, claiming non-compliance of directions passed by the bench led by Justice Abhay S Oka (currently a SC judge) on July 31, 2017 to pull down illegal hoardings and banners.

As per 2017 verdict, a nodal police officer of rank not below Deputy Commissioner was asked to take immediate action on complaints received from municipal officers and citizens regarding non-cooperation by local police stations to register FIRs.

In December, 2023, the state government and police authorities had submitted that there was no lack of willingness on their part to deal with the issue and assured that required police force will be provided to civic employees on duty, for removal and checking of illegal hoardings.

Noting that since the illegal hoardings, banners are generally put up during night, the HC had asked local police authorities to increase vigilance through night patrolling to take action against those putting up illegal hoardings, banners.

The HC had clarified that the state’s undertaking would not mean that ‘slackness’ by civic authorities to remove illegal hoardings and curb their spread is permitted.