The Madras High Court has, on Monday, gripped its previous directives on ending the banner culture in the state of Tamil Nadu that has been upholding by most of the political parties despite that has become a threat for common people lives. 

The High court bench comprised of Justices Sathyanarayanan and Hemalatha, while hearing the petitions filed by social activist Traffic Ramaswamy, noted that apart from the ruling ADMK and opposition DMK, no other state political parties had filed the affidavits that they would neither erect the banners nor hoardings in the public places.  The bench had adjourned the hearing to February 27th by issuing the fresh directive to the state home secretary to disclose the report before the bench on the steps initiated by the state government to prohibit the rise of banner culture and the actions imposed against the offenders. 

During the hearing on Monday, the government pleader had asserted that the government had removed and dispersed all the unauthorized structures that were placed in the public places and added that the charge sheet has been filed against the accused who had been detained for reportedly erected illegal banners in Chennai that killed 23-year-old techie Subhashree in September 2019.

The bench had issued a warning to the Chennai corporation that the commissioner would be called to appear before the court if the corporation fails to conduct regular meetings towards addressing the banner issue. Despite being one of the prevailing issues, the banner issue had erupted more anger and accusations across the state after the banner that was illegally erected by the ruling party cadre had killed Subhashree, a Chennai based software techie. On September 13, 2019, when Subhashree was on her way to home in one of the busiest roads in the city, the banner that was put up in the divider of the road had hit her two-wheeler after which she lost her drive and fell on the road and she was rammed by the truck that was driving behind.

After her death, the High court had strongly condemned the state government for being apathetic in implementing the court orders properly to stop the rise of the illegal banners. Traffic Ramaswamy had approached the high court with his contempt petition by stating the government had failed to implement the court's previous order passed in 2018 to remove the illegal banners and structures in the public places.