Only photos of President, PM and Chief Justice of India to be on central govt ads: Supreme Court
New Delhi: The Supreme Court today issued a slew of guidelines on regulation of public advertisements and said that they can carry pictures of certain dignitaries like the President, Prime Minister and the Chief Justice of India.
A bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi rejected the plea of the central government that judiciary should not tread into the territory of policy decisions and said that the courts can step in if there is no policy or law in place.
It also asked the central government to constitute a three-member committee to regulate the issue of public advertisement.
The court accepted all major recommendations made by a committee on regulation of government advertisements. It, however, did not allow a provision for special audit of award of government advertisement to media houses.
It did not approve one of the recommendations of the three-member committee, headed by eminent academician Prof N R Madhava Menon, that government advertisements should not carry photographs of any dignitaries including the President and the Prime Minister.
The apex court had on April 24 had set up the committee and decided to frame guidelines to prevent “misuse” of public funds by the government and authorities in giving ads in newspapers and television to gain political mileage.
Earlier on February 17, the government had opposed the framing of guidelines on regulating its advertisements, saying this did not fall under the ambit of judicial purview as an elected dispensation was answerable to Parliament.
It had also asked as to how would the court decide which advertisement has been issued to gain political mileage.
Appearing for the Centre, Attorney General (AG) Mukul Rohatgi had said that “there are matters which should be left to the government and are outside the purview of the courts” and had added that the government communicates to the public at large through these advertisements on policy and other matters.
PTI
