IMPORTANT POINTS
When the Local Self Government Institutions permit such Boards to be erected in future, it be ensured that the Boards are erected in specified places/spaces suitable for such and that requisite conditions are imposed for the disposal of the boards in a scientific manner after its purpose is served- The responsibility of removing such Boards shall be imposed upon the persons/entities erecting them and suitable undertakings/bonds shall be taken from them for this purpose- While choosing the places where the Local Self Government Institutions can permit such installations, care shall also be taken that no such Board shall be erected in between the road and the pedestrian an-or in any manner protruding into the road margins or into the common area use for the pedestrians or the motorists.

Devan Ramachandran, J.

1. Read order dated 27/07/2018.

2. In pursuance of the directions in the above order, the Additional Chief Secretary, Local Self Government Department has sworn to an affidavit on behalf of the Chief Secretary as also the Principal Secretary to the Public works Department and the same is on record.

3. Glancing through the affidavit and in particular paragraphs 2, 3, 6, 7 and 8, the unequivocal stand of the authorities appear to be that Flex Boards/Bill Boards/Advertisement Boards installed without the permission of the concerned Local Self Government Institutions, namely, the Corporation, Municipality or Panchayat, as the case may be, violates law and that the erection of boards would have to be seen as being completely illegal. In fact, in paragraph 3 of the affidavit, the respondents admit that large Flex Boards and Bill Boards are often erected without the permission of the Local Self Government Institutions and this causes inconvenience to the public and impedes the free flow of traffic. The respondents, thereafter, say that the control with respect to placing of Advertisement Boards is within the respective Local Self Government Institutions, namely the Corporation, the Municipality or the Panchayat concerned and that it is their duty to 'demolish or remove the unauthorised advertisement boards or arches erected'. The affidavit further analyses the various sections of the Kerala Panchayat Raj Act and the Kerala Municipality Act and states affirmatively that any person or entity can erect a Board, be that a Flex Board/Bill Board/Advertisement Board only with the express permission of the Corporation, Municipality or the Panchayat concerned, but confesses that there are no specific Rules regulating such activities. The Principal Secretary has highlighted the requirement to ban or restrict the use of Flex Boards in certain cases and he has said that the Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016 has taken into account all these factors also.

4. As regards the income from these Boards, eventhough the affidavit does not state specifically, it is tangentially averred that the rates of tax, including under the GST Act, for advertisement would also require to be attracted in the case of such boards.

5. On a consideration of the averments in the affidavit, I am drav to understand that the official respondents also have taken cognizance : the deleterious consequences of individuals and entities placing and erecting large Flex Boards/Bill Boards/Advertisement Boards without any control a-without any permission being obtained from any authority.

6. Presently, as is also virtually admitted, individuals and entities place sue Boards where they want, at any place they want, in any manner they want and the do not turn back after several weeks and often months, leading to the Boards to decs and left dangling wherever it is erected. Certain areas of the Cities, Municipalitise: and Panchayats are so full of these Boards, kept one over the other without an one being there to remove them, that it now resembles a Byzantine Maze.

7. This is distressing because at a time when Governments in India, be the the State Government or the Central Government, are going all out to promote sanitation and cleanliness under the 'Swatch Bharat Mission' (in the case of Central Government) and 'Clean Kerala Mission' (in the case of State Government), a felt self-interested and self-centered individuals or entities choose to violate the civic sense of the large majority of the citizens by placing such Boards, either to promote themselves or to promote content of their selfish choice.

8. The most visible contributors to this nuisance are boards which promote movies, certain organisations, self-centered individuals and even businesses.

9. It is baffling that when one has to pay a fixed tariff to the Local Self Government Institutions to erect an authorised Advertisement Board, these persons are allowed to do so without having to remit a single pen