The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will resume action against shops which still do not adhere to the law of displaying their names in Marathi. 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.