PM and President’s photos in govt ads: Supreme Court ruling, High Court interpretation | Explained News,The Indian Express

The SC ruling did not mandate publication of the photograph of the PM and President, but only restricts publication of photos of government officials other than the President, PM, CJI, CM and the Governor.

The Madras High Court on Friday directed the Tamil Nadu government to include the photographs of the President of India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in advertisements on the 44th Chess Olympiad underway in Chennai. The HC relied on a 2015 Supreme Court ruling that issued guidelines on government spending on advertisements.

What was the 2015 ruling?

In Common Cause v Union of India, the Supreme Court sought to regulate the way the government spends on advertisements. It essentially regulated the 2007 New Advertisement Policy of the Government of India. The petitioners had argued that there is arbitrary spending on advertisements by the government. The allegations ranged from wastage of public money for political mileage to using advertisements as a tool to manipulate media.

“Since the primary cause of government advertisement is to use public funds to inform the public of their rights, obligations, and entitlements as well as to explain Government policies, programs, services and initiatives, however, when these requisites are not fulfilled in a government advertisement then the whole purpose would be frustrated,” the court said.

“Patronization of any particular media house(s) must be avoided and award of advertisements must be on an equal basis to all newspapers who may, however, be categorized depending upon their circulation. The DAVP (Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity) guidelines do not deal with the said aspect of the matter and hence the necessity of incorporating the same in the present directions to ensure the independence, impartiality and the neutrality of the fourth estate which is vital to the growth and sustenance of democracy will have to be weighed and considered by us,” it said.

https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/pm-and-presidents-photos-in-govt-ads-sc-ruling-hc-interpretation-8062872/


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