PIL In Karnataka High Court Seeks Removal Of Illegal Hoardings, Commercial LED Advertisement Boards; Calls It 'Visual Pollution'

A PIL has been filed before the Karnataka High Court alleging that Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) / Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) is trying to legitimise the illegal Self LED hoardings and its conversion to commercial hoardings. The PIL filed by K Laxmana, a Bengaluru resident, also accuses the city authority of providing licenses without requisite approvals and offering 'One Time Settlement Schemes' for conversion of private LED hoardings for commercial content.The principal bench of Chief Justice Vibhu Bakhru and Justice C.M. Poonacha issued notice to the State entities and posted the matter for June 18.The counsel for the petitioner, at the time of admission, urged the court about the necessity of cancelling commercial LED advertisement licenses, which can now be easily obtained through the OTO scheme offered under the Greater Bengaluru Area (Advertisement) Rules, 2025.The PIL before the principal bench seeks the court's intervention to strike down Rule 8(7)(vii) of the Greater Bengaluru Area (Advertisement) Rules, 2025 as manifestly arbitrary and as a violation of the Right to Environment guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution. The PIL also prays for court's direction to halt the issuance of allegedly illegal self-advertisement LED Hoardings and the conversion of such hoardings to commercial ones through the BBMP scheme. In 2018, the BBMP Council issued a resolution banning commercial hoardings across the city due to concerns regarding traffic safety, visual pollution, and urban aesthetics. Under the BBMP Act, 2020 permitted licenses for advertisements given prior approvals are obtained from the Chief Commissioner.In 2021, the government of Karnataka issued BBMP (Advertisement) Rules to try and legalise commercial hoardings which was later withdrawn due to public pressure and court intervention, the petitioner says in the PIL.According to the PIL, BBMP has routinely issued self-advertisement approvals and self LED Hoardings on private properties even without the approval of Chief Commissioner, in violation of Section 158 of the BBMP Act, 2020. This trend has continued even when the private properties have crores of arrears in advertisement tax, the petitioner submitted. The counsel for the petitioner, in the current PIL, has also requested that the permissions already granted for self LED hoardings without Chief Commissioner's approval under BBMP Act, 2020 be deemed void ab initio. The petitioner also prayed for the immediate removal of existing illegal LED hoardings.BBMP issued new advertisement bye-laws in 2024. In 2025, the BBMP Advertisement Bye Laws were officially notified under the Greater Bengaluru Governance Act, 2025, which replaced 2018 bye laws.Additionally, in January 2026, the Greater Bengaluru Area (Advertisement) Rules were notified under the Governance Act with a mechanism of 'One Time Opportunity' Scheme for conversion of self LED Hoardings to commercial advertisements under Rule 8(7)(vii), despite the arrears in taxes. A nodal officer was also appointed via a government order to supervise the implementation of the One Time Settlement Scheme of conversion.It is pertinent to note here that the Karnataka High Court had taken cognisance of loss of lives due to illegal hoardings and issued contempt notices to BBMP and Police Commissioners in July 2024. The court had then noted that there were 6.8 lakh illegal advertisements in Bengaluru based on a news report from Times of India.Advocate Anirudh A Kulkarni along with Vasista Ramprasad appeared for the petitioner, K Laxmana, a Bengaluru resident.Case Title: K. Laxmana v State of Karnataka & Ors.Case No: WP 6767/2026

PIL In Karnataka High Court Seeks Removal Of Illegal Hoardings, Commercial LED Advertisement Boards; Calls It 'Visual Pollution'

Sebin James

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