The Bombay High Court today made it clear that the stay preventing Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) from penalising the shop-keepers who break the Marathi signboard rule is still in effect.
As a result, the MCGM would not be able to take any "coercive action" against the shopkeepers, whose sign board does not have name in Devnagari in bigger font.
A traders' association had challenged the constitutional validity of amendment to Maharashtra Shops and Establishments Act in 2001. The amendment said that name in Devnagari script on signboard must be in bigger font than the name in English or any other language.
High court, in 2001, had admitted the petition, and restrained MCGM from imposing fine on shopkeepers breaking the the new rule during the pendnecy of the petition. But recently, MCGM issued a new notification, seeking to implement the rule.
Therefore, Federation of Retail Trader's Welfare Association today raised the issue in the high court. The court made it clear that restraining order of 2001 continues, as petition is still pending.
Last year, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena started a violent agitation, demanding that signboards in the city must be in Marathi. The Federation had then filed a separate application in the High Court, pointing out that as per the 2001 stay, the signboards rule can not be enforced for the time being.
The court had then restrained MNS chief Raj Thackeray from making inflammatory speeches and resorting to violence over the issue. But when the application came up for hearing again this January, the High Court inadvertently disposed of the main petition too.
Today the division bench of chief justice Swatanter Kumar and Justice Dhananjay Chandrachud clarified that the original petition of 2001 is still alive, and the stay to implementation of the rule also remains.
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