Supreme Court stays order on razing of hoarding

Mumbai: The Supreme Court has stayed a Bombay high court order that directed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to demolish hoardings at Juhu beach put up by Guju Ads, an advertising agency. The SC while directing for a status quo has asked the BMC to conduct a hearing of the outdoor publicist who claimed to have won the tender floated by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) fairly for erecting the hoardings. However, Palm Grove hotel and others had opposed it stating that it did not have requisite permissions of the authorities, resulting in the HC passing the demolition order.

Aggrieved by a March 1 order of the division bench of Justices S.C. Dharmadhikari and Bharati Dangare, which ordered demolition of foundations for hoardings constructed on AAI land at Juhu, Guju Ads against whom various writ and a public interest litigation approached the Supreme Court through a special leave petition (SLP) seeking a stay on the high court order. The SLP was heard on March 8.  

According to Guju Ads, it had started work on constructing the foundation for 14 hoardings on November 2017 after winning the tender floated by the AAI. The tender was meant for putting up hoardings on AAI-owned land outside the airport premises adjacent to Palm Grove Hotel. A spokesperson for Guju Ads said that that it had broken a monopoly of 55 years enjoyed by the previous advertisers in the said area by winning the tender bid. Senior SC counsel Mukul Rohatgi and the legal team of Guju Ads, AZB and partners appealed against the demolition order and prayed for a stay as the BMC had not given them a chance to place their sayon the issue.