MUMBAI, April 8 -- The Bombay High Court on Monday upheld the 2009 decision of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to increase the licence fees for outdoor advertisements such as hoardings and sky-signs by 10% every year. The division bench of chief justice Shree Chandrashekhar and justice Gautam Akhand dismissed a petition filed by an advertising firm, Rushabh Outdoors, which had challenged the 2009 decision. The BMC had, in December 2009, increased the outdoor advertisement licence fees by 80%, with provision for 10% increase every subsequent year. Rushabh Outdoors argued that while the fee was apparently hiked on account of rising expenditure and decreasing revenue from licence fees, information obtained by them under the Right to Information Act showed that the BMC had (at the relevant time) reserves and surplus of Rs.47,244.56 crore and its consolidated income far exceeded its expenditure. The petitioner firm further argued that the effect of a 10% annual hike in perpetuity was excessive, arbitrary and unreasonable, in violation of Articles 14 (right to equality) and 19 (right to a profession) of the Constitution. The BMC opposed the petition, pointing out that its administrative expenditure had almost doubled in the four years preceding the 2009 fee hike decision, from Rs.5,366.26 crore in 2003-04 to Rs.10,585 crore in 2007-08. The proposal to increase the licence fee was considered at various levels and approved by the general body, the BMC said....