BMC to levy fines on shop owners for not putting up Marathi sign boards

The BMC will start taking action against shop owners who failed to display Marathi sign boards in their shops. The deadline by the Supreme Court for the installation of the boards in Mumbai will come to an end on November 25 and penalties will be slapped from November 26. According to a Free Press Journal report, no extra time will be granted to the owners. Raiding squads will be prepared ward-wise and Rs2,000 fine will be slapped for failing to comply with the orders. There are around seven lakh shops and establishments in Mumbai. Action against such shops was stopped in November 2022 after a Supreme Court (SC) order stayed it. Till then, according to BMC’s inspection, around 20 per cent of shops in Mumbai were not following the law. 

According to the Maharashtra Shops and Establishments (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) (Amendment) Act, 2022, all shops in the state must display Marathi signboards in the Devanagari script. In case there are multiple languages, the Devanagari font is not to be smaller than the others. The Act was implemented in the state from May 2022. The BMC extended the deadline to comply with the Act thrice—to May 31, to June 30 and to September 30, 2022. The civic body thereafter gave another 10 days’ time to shopkeepers to put up the signboards before starting to issue seven-day notices. In March 2022, the state government decided to display Marathi fonts as equal to English fonts. Earlier, only the shops employing more than 10 workers were supposed to follow the rule but the government later made it compulsory for all. The government also prohibited liquor shops and bars from keeping the name of their shops over the name of honourable personalities. Earlier, the shopkeepers' associations approached the High Court and later the Supreme Court. In September, the SC granted two months to associations to follow the rules.