Proposed hike in advt licence fees not arbitrary, says Bombay HC

The petitioners had argued that the “licence fee in question is essentially regulatory in nature and not compensatory. The counsels, appearing for the petitioners, further stated that there must be a reasonable, broad and overall correlation between the costs of the services and the quantum of fees levied adding that the justifications given for the increase are “wholly untenable.”

Meanwhile, the BMC had said that the number of hoardings in the city has gone down and that there is an overall increase in costs and a need to augment the corporation’s revenue.

BMC further pointed out that “this is not a matter of receiving an application, processing it mechanically and issuing a license across the table. There are several other activities required, and a very great deal of coordination between various departments and officers.”

According to BMC, there are 13 different departments involved at some level or the other in this regulation. “We do not think it is either possible or wise for a court to blinker itself from the everyday realities of public administration. The experience with budgets constantly in deficit and the recommendations of successive Pay Commissions themselves tell us enough about the constantly increasing costs and expenses of public bodies and authorities. We note, too, that the licensing departments deal with a multitude of licenses, not only advertising and hoarding licences,” said Justice A S Oka and Justice Gautam Patel.

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