ATUL GARG Vs. NAGAR NIGAM GHAZIABAD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard Sri Anoop Trivedi, learned counsel for the petitioner, Sri S.M. Shukla, learned counsel for the Nagar Nigam and learned Standing Counsel for the State.

(2.) This petition has been filed praying for quashing of the advertisement fee as well as the charges for removal of advertisements under the impugned orders dated 17th Jan., 2012 and 31st Jan., 2012 passed by the Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation on the ground, that the petitioner who was a candidate of the Assembly Elections of the State of Uttar Pradesh, 2012 fielded by the Bharatiya Janta Party, had set up hoardings and kiosks for advertisements without the permission of the Municipal Corporation in spite of a public notice having been issued in this regard and notified in the newspapers. The petitioner has also been called upon to deposit the amount therein on the ground that the Municipal Corporation had to incur an expenditure for removal of the said advertisements and therefore the petitioner was liable to make good the aforesaid demand raised through the impugned order keeping in view the directives issued by the Election Commission, the powers exercisable by the Municipal Corporation, Ghaziabad under the U.P. Municipal Corporation Act 1959 and the Rules framed thereunder.

(3.) Upon a challenge having been raised in this petition, a Division Bench of this Court on 23rd Feb., 2012 passed the following interim order:-