Taking a cue from the death of a young techie when the unauthorised hoarding put out by a local AIADMK leader fell on her, the Madras High Court on Wednesday ordered the removal of all hoardings, posters, banners, wall paintings and other forms of advertisements put up by Southern Railway trade unions in and around Madurai. The court asked the trade unions of the Railways to immediately remove all such advertisements and other displays from railway stations, trains, carrriages and station premises.
Trade unions of Southern Railway have been a law unto themselves and hold the officials who refuse to dance to their tunes to ransom, according to a senior railway official in Chennai. The entire railway stations are full of posters and banners eulogising the general secretary of a union who issues frequent threats of agitation and strikes by the employees.
A Bench comprising of Justices TS Sivagnanam and R Tharani which pronounced the verdict said that railway station premises were for the general public and no structures put up by the unions should come in the way of the people frequenting the Stations. They gave a time frame of three weeks to the unions and the railway officials to get the displays removed. The verdict was in response to a public interest litigation filed by Prabhakar, a local citizen of Madurai who sought a direction from the court to remove all banners , hoardings and displays put up by trade unions from railway premises. The judges pointed out that despite the ban imposed on flex boards in public places, the law has not been implemented on Southern Railway premises and properties. This led to disfigurement of railway premises, compound walls and even railway carriages by flex boards and flags featuring trade union leaders, while the railway authorities remained mute spectators, they added. While lambasting the trade unions for their ‘irresponsible attitude’, the judges opined that, "In our view, these self-proclaimed leaders do not have any rights to put up such structures in railway properties. Moreover, granting permission to such activities is also illegal."