HC allows banners in TN to welcome Chinese president

CHENNAI: The Madras high court on Thursday gave the go-ahead for putting up welcome banners for the second India-China informal summit in Mamallapuram next week.

The banners will be put up along the 60-km stretch from Chennai airport to Mamallapuram, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping are scheduled to meet for the summit.

A division bench of justices M Sathyanarayanan and N Seshasayee made it clear that political parties will not be allowed to put up banners taking advantage of the court’s permission for putting them up for the summit.

In December 2018, the court directed political parties against erecting flex boards that cause inconvenience to the public. The court last month pulled up the government for failing to implement its order after a computer engineer died when a ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam hoarding fell on her in Chennai. The state moved the court on Tuesday seeking its permission to erect banners welcoming Modi and Xi ahead of the meet. It said it was customary to welcome a visiting dignitary.

“Whenever a head of state visits our country as part of bilateral relations, it is customary on the part of the ministry of external affairs to welcome the visiting dignitary by putting up welcome banners, as a goodwill gesture,” the state government and the external affairs ministry said in a joint affidavit.