State could not have granted permission to third parties: Karnataka HC revokes order allowing display of hoardings for COVID-19 awareness

The Karnataka High Court on Friday revoked its earlier order by which it had allowed the state government to display hoardings for awareness on how to curb the spread of COVID-19..This, after it found that private entities were using these hoardings set up by the Department of Health to advertise..A Division Bench of Chief Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Ashok S Kinagi did so while observing that the state government has misused the Court's order dated July 15..Karnataka HC allows state govt and BBMP to display hoardings in Bengaluru for creating awareness about COVID-19 spread and safety measures."The order of this court was passed in larger public interest. In normal course if these private entities were to display advertisements they would require permission from the Commissioner. They would have been required to pay tax. Thus the order dated July 15, was misused by the state govt. By permitting private parties to display the advertisement though no such permission was granted by this court. These private parties benefited from this order of the court."Karnataka High Court.The Court further observed,.“It is apparent that the state government has permitted private parties to advertise on hoardings in complete breach of the order of this court dated July 15 and in violation of the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act of 1976, especially section 134 and 135, thereof. On the face of it, in view of order dated 15 July, the state government could not have granted permission to third parties to display hoardings, therefore we have no option but to recall and revoke the order.”.In this view, the Court directed the state government to appoint appropriate officers to inquire into the conduct of the Director of the Health Department, who allowed private entities to put up these hoardings in breach of its order. The inquiry report has to be submitted before the Court within six weeks. .The Bench has also directed that all hoardings which flouted the Court 's earlier order will have to be removed within two weeks..Further, the Court directed Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to communicate to the state government the advertisement tax payable in view of the fact that advertisements of private parties were displayed at the instance of the state government without payment of tax. This is required to be done within three weeks..The Court said that the State was required to recover the said amounts from the private parties in question, and accordingly, pay the amount to BBMP..The state government was also urged to disclose by way of an affidavit whether any money was spent to display advertisements either from government funds or from funds of the BBMP. .Permission of Court is being misused: Karnataka HC pulls up State for display of private ads on COVID-19 awareness hoardings .Moreover, the Court posed the following question to the authorities:."Whether any amount was received by the state government from agencies like A-1 gold, and other parties whose advertisements were displayed by M/s wall street communications (the private agency appointed by the state government for putting up COVID-19 advertisements)?".With these observations, the Court proceeded to revoke its earlier order dated July 15.