Chennai: The Madras high court has cautioned Southern Railway that revenue generation cannot be achieved by breaching law, more so, when it is a question of railways, which is of the government.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice R.Mahadevan gave the caution while referring to unauthorised hoardings put up on Southern Railway premises.
“The railways in their affidavit, have denied the allegations of having stated that since large amounts had been collected for granting permission for erection of hoardings within railway premises, the issue of compensation would arise. The fact, however, remains that the hoardings have been installed without verifying whether necessary permissions have been obtained from authorities concerned. We have cautioned the senior divisional commercial manager, Southern Railway, present in the court, that revenue generation cannot be achieved by breaching law, more so when it is a question of the railways which is of the government”, the court said.
The bench said additional advocate-general submitted all hoardings referred to in an earlier order have been removed. The explanation given qua (in the character of) the hoardings on the government eco park was that the said park was to be self sustaining project for which different revenue models were explored.
The status report by Commissioner of Fisheries who was present in court stated that one of the methods of revenue generation was through leasing of advertisement space, and in furtherance thereof a tender was awarded to M/s Laser Tech Entertainment Private limited of Bangalore, which had installed the hoardings. It was conceded by senior counsel for the entity that this was done without obtaining permission, though an application has been filed. “We are of the view that you cannot place the cart before the horse and the permission should be obtained first before installing the hoardings and would be subject to the terms and conditions of the license. The application can be dealt with by the authorities in accordance with law expeditiously”, the bench added.
The bench said the additional advocate-general submitted that now a single window clearance system has been established in pursuance of what the court had observed in its last order.
