The Bombay High Court has asked the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to restore a video featuring actor Dia Mirza urging citizens to avoid firecrackers and noise pollution, calling the civic body’s decision to remove it “unfortunate”.
The direction was issued while the court was hearing a suo motu public interest litigation concerning Diwali-related issues. The court said it was disturbed by the removal of the message from the BMC’s social media platforms and sought its re-upload.
“We would desire that in the event any goodwill message of any celebrity was taken off from the Corporation’s social media, it would be ideal if the same is put back in the spirit of what the Supreme Court observed that the festival is for everybody to celebrate,” the court observed, according to the Times of India report.
The court further said, “No person can be isolated from any festival being celebrated in this country.” The observation came in the context of the public messaging issued by the municipal corporation during the festival period.
The video by Mirza appealed to citizens to celebrate a cracker-free Diwali and avoid noise pollution. Its removal raised a question about how civic bodies balance festival-related public communication with messages on environmental and public-health concerns.
The BMC uses social media to communicate with Mumbai residents on civic issues, including public safety and environmental conditions. The court’s intervention places the removal of the video within the broader responsibility of municipal authorities to communicate with residents during major public festivals.
The report did not specify the exact date on which the video was removed, the reason recorded by the BMC for taking it down, or whether the civic body had already restored it after the court’s direction. It also did not identify the bench hearing the suo motu proceedings. The next formal step will be the BMC’s response and action on the court’s request to re-upload the message.
