New Delhi: In an important development with regard to regulation of public advertisements, the Supreme Court on Wednesday 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.
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.
The court said the use of photographs of an individual, leader or minister not only has a tendency to associate an individual with a project, but leads to a personality cult. The court said this was a direct injustice to democracy.
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.
Bureau Repot
Leave a Reply