CHENNAI: The first bench of Madras High Court comprising Chief Justice SV Gangapurwala and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy on Monday directed the state police to take immediate steps to remove unauthorised flagpoles installed along national highways by political parties.
The direction was issued on a public interest litigation petition filed by advocate R Ramalingam seeking action to remove such poles that cause inconvenience to motorists.
The bench said installing illegal flagpoles should not be allowed and it would be imperative for the law enforcing agency to take action against the erring political parties. “We direct the law enforcing agency (state police) to take immediate action against installing illegal flagpoles,” the bench said in the order.
The court recorded the submission of the counsel for the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) that 89 flagpoles we0re removed from 45 locations on Saturday and 40 more are yet to be removed.
The court also suo motu impleaded the ECI in the case in order to find a permanent solution to the issue.