Addressing safety hazards posed by low-hanging outdoor advertisements on road dividers, the High Court of Jharkhand, presided over by Justice Ananda Sen, directed the Ranchi Municipal Corporation to remove all advertisement hoardings, billboards, and placards attached to streetlight poles on dividers that are placed at a low height from the road surface. The court passed the directive while dealing with writ petitions filed by advertising agencies challenging orders that directed the removal of their advertisement structures.
Background
The petitions were filed by the Jharkhand State Outdoor Advertising Association and M/s RDS Advertising & Marketing Group, challenging an order that directed advertising agencies to remove hoardings, monopoles, and unipoles across the city.
Arguments of the Parties
Appearing for the petitioners, Senior Advocate Amit Kumar Das, along with advocates Sankalp Goswami, Indrajit Sinha, Prerna Jhunjhunwala, and Souma Ranjan Mukherjee, argued that the authorities should inform the advertising agencies as to which specific hoardings pose a threat. The petitioners contended that a general threat perception cannot be assumed in respect of all hoardings.
Representing the Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC), advocates P.A.S. Pati, Priyanka Kumari, and Vaishnavi Kaushik submitted that monopoles, unipoles, advertisement hoardings, billboards, and placards are hazardous and tend to distract drivers, leading to untoward incidents including injury and loss of life. RMC prayed for time to file a detailed counter affidavit.
Court’s Analysis
Upon perusing the record and photographs attached to an interlocutory application, the court noted specific instances of dangerous structure placements. Pointing to a photograph of a unipole advertising “Maa Gayatri Jewellers,” the court noted that it protruded onto the roadside with the circumference of the billboard extending up to the middle of the road.
The court further observed that streetlight poles on road dividers had advertisement boards fixed at such a low height that they were bound to strike motorcyclists and two-wheeler riders passing through the road.
Highlighting the risk to commuters, the court made the following key observation:
“Placing the advertisement boards at such a low height in the middle of the roads on the electricity poles, is definitely a threat to the commuters. Further, those creates blind spot also.”
Decision
Consequently, the High Court directed the Ranchi Municipal Corporation to remove all advertisement hoardings, billboards, and placards attached to streetlight poles on road dividers that are placed at a low height.
The court clarified that if any hoardings are to be placed on electricity poles located on road dividers, no part of the hoarding should be lower than 12 feet from the road surface or alignment. Any advertisement boards or placards fixed below this 12-foot threshold must immediately be removed or re-positioned beyond 12 feet from the road surface.
The court directed RMC to file its counter affidavit in the meantime and scheduled the case for further hearing in the following week.
Case Title: Jharkhand State Outdoor Advertising Association v. The State of Jharkhand & Ors. WITH M/s RDS Advertising & Marketing Group v. Administrator, Ranchi Municipal Corporation & Ors.
Case No.: W.P.(C) No. 2560 of 2026 WITH W.P.(C) No. 2508 of 2026
Bench: Justice Ananda Sen
Date: August 11, 2026
