Salley granted leave to proceed on hoarding issue

Wasantha Ramanayake

The Supreme Court recently granted leave to proceed with a Fundamental Rights application filed by former Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) Deputy Mayor Azath Salley who sought to remove illegal hoarding in the Colombo City limits.

The Court also extended the limited interim order directing the CMC to consider all the applications made for erection of hoardings for advertisement in terms of the CMC guidelines until the final determination of the application.

The Bench comprised Justice Dr. Shirani Bandaranayake, Justice Andrew Somawansa and Justice Jagath Balapatabendi. Counsel for petitioner Salley submitted that there were large number of unauthorised hoardings erected in the municipal area in violation of the by-laws and the guidelines of the CMC on the erection of hoardings.

The counsel submitted that the Supreme Court made the orders last year permitting the CMC to remove hoardings which were in violation of the guidelines in respect of several fundamental rights applications challenging CMC’s power to remove such hoardings.

He submitted that CMC had not only failed to remove the illegal hoardings but also the third respondent Municipal Commissioner continue to approve the erection of new hoardings in violation of the guidelines. He also submitted that 1-3 respondents had failed to evolve transparent and accountable mechanism of receiving revenue by advertisements hoardings.

The counsel submitted that some of the hoardings were erected even on the pavements disturbing pedestrians and in most cases hoardings were erected on two more poles and were over-sized. Some were depicting nudity and semi nudity. He submitted that all instances were in violation of the guidelines.

The counsel further submitted that the scenic and aesthetic beauty and the historical value of the city had been irreparably marred and disturbed posing danger to the safety and the morale of the public.

The petitioner sought to remove illegal hoardings and interim order to restrain the respondents from granting approval for constructing new hoardings within the City limits.

The petitioner cited CMC, its Mayor and Deputy Mayor and Municipal Commissioner Jayantha Liyanage and five others as respondents. Counsel J.C. Weliamuna instructed by G.G. Arulpragasam appeared for the petitioner. Uditha Igalahewa and M.M. Mohideen appeared for respondents, the CMC, its officials and the President and the General Secretary of the Outdoor Advertising Association of Sri Lanka.

The objections are to be filed on or before November 26.

The hearing was fixed for January 29, 2008.