CHENNAI: A division bench of the Madras High Court on Friday refused to stay the operation of an order of a single judge, imposing a blanket ban on depicting images of persons who are alive in banners, hoardings and other advertisement materials. While passing orders on a petition, Justice S Vaidyanathan had imposed the ban on October 24.
The Greater Chennai Corporation filed present appeal, which was admitted and posted for hearing on Monday, by a bench of Justices M Sathyanarayanan and N Seshasayee. Ground level officers from the Tahsildar in the Revenue department are used for distribution of government freebies and supervising them while constitutional courts like the High Courts are burdened with petitions seeking directions for relief, the bench pointed out.
If officials were allowed to do their official work alone, unnecessary litigation could be avoided and the precious time of the High Courts not wasted, the bench said. Vexed with the poor performance of the government authorities, Justice Sathyanarayanan said no orders of the courts are obeyed by officials. A banner, which had been erected in front of his house several days ago, has not been removed yet, he said.