The high court on Monday ruled that the Calcutta Municipal Corporation was empowered to ban billboards and other outdoor advertisements in the city’s heritage zones.

“It’s the civic body’s discretion to decide where it will allow billboards,” Justice Tapan Sen said.

“Putting up advertisements in the heritage zones will be illegal from now and the civic body will have the right to demolish the billboards,” said lawyer Aloke Ghosh, who appeared for the CMC.

In 2007, the CMC had issued an order banning billboards and other outdoor advertisements in the Dalhousie and Esplande areas, among the heritage zones of the city.

A few outdoor advertisement firms then moved the high court challenging the CMC’s authority to issue any order on heritage affairs. Justice Sen’s ruling was in response to the petition.