Note on defacement of property - legal provisions

A SHORT NOTE CONTAINING PROVISIONS OF STATE LAWS REGARDING PREVENTION OF DEFACEMENT OF PROPERTY In term of commission’s instructions bearing No. 3/7/2008/JS-II dated 7.10.2008, defacement of public places is prohibited. No wall writing, pasting of posters/papers or defacement in any other form or erecting/displaying of cutouts, hoardings, banners, flags etc. is permitted on any government premises which would include any government office with its campus as well as educational institutions. Local state laws also prohibit defacement of public property as shown in the table given below;- Urban Area Rural Area Educational Institutions, Religious Buildings, buildings of Centre/State Government/Local Authority etc. Any land, building, wall hoarding, frame, post, tree, kiosk or structure, belonging to, or is occupied or used by, the Central or State government or any local authority etc As permitted by local laws read with Commission’s instructions cited above, wall writings and pasting of posters, putting up hoardings, banners etc on private premises are permissible with prior written permission from the owner of the property and submission of photo copies of the consent to the concerned Returning Officer and local Police Station within 3 days together with a performa statement. In case of defacement of public property, the police shall take suo-moto action by instituting case against the contesting candidate concerned/local office bearers of the concerned political party if the contesting candidate/political party fails to remove the defacement within 24 hours. In case of defacement of private property the concerned Returning officer shall issue a notice to the concerned contesting candidate/political party either to produce written consent of the owner within 3 days or to remove the defacement. In default, the RO/ARO shall lodge FIR against the contesting candidate/political party and police will institute case against them in accordance with law. In both cases, the expenditure incurred even for such illegal defacement shall be added to the Election expenditure made by that candidate. Public funds will not be used to erase the illegal defacement especially since legal prosecution will be started in all such cases.