A plea in the Supreme Court Today (Aug 4) challenged the Madras High Court order banning the use of living persons’ names, ex-CMs’ photos, and party symbols in government scheme ads. The case will be heard urgently on August 6.
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NEW DELHI: A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court of India against a recent order passed by the Madras High Court, which stopped the Tamil Nadu government from using the name of any living person, photographs of former Chief Ministers or ideological leaders, and political party symbols in advertisements for government welfare schemes.
The matter came up today before a Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) BR Gavai and Justice Vinod Chandran.
After hearing the request, the CJI agreed to list the case for urgent hearing on Wednesday, August 6.
Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi appeared before the court to mention the matter for an early hearing. He told the court,
“This is a very unusual and urgent case. No scheme of the Government can have the name of the Chief Minister or any political figure.”
He further questioned the need for such restrictions, asking why there should be a complete ban on using such names for social welfare schemes brought by the government for the public.
The order under challenge was passed on July 31 by a Bench of Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice Sunder Mohan of the Madras High Court.
The High Court was hearing a petition filed by AIADMK Member of Parliament C Ve Shanmugam, who wanted the court to stop the State government from naming schemes after living political leaders or using their photos, as well as party symbols, in promotional material.
In the petition, it was alleged that the Tamil Nadu government was launching a new scheme that used the current Chief Minister’s name, along with photos of ideological leaders and the ruling party DMK’s symbols.
This, according to the petitioner, was against the Supreme Court’s earlier guidelines and the 2014 Government Advertisement (Content Regulation) Guidelines issued by the Centre.
The High Court, while passing the interim order, referred to the Supreme Court’s ruling in State of Karnataka v. Common Cause & Others.
It noted that as per that judgment, publishing the photograph of the current Chief Minister is allowed. However, the court also observed that using the images of ideological leaders or former Chief Ministers was prima facie against the directives given by the Supreme Court.
The High Court also clearly stated that including the names of political leaders in the title of any government scheme was not permissible under the law.
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