Supreme Court asks Centre, six states and BJP to respond to alleged public ad order violation plea

The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Centre, six states and Bharatiya Janata Party to respond on a petition filed by Aam Aadmi Party MLA from Delhi alleging violation of the apex court’s directions on public advertisements.

The states that were directed to give their reply by a bench led by Justice Ranjan Gogoi are Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh and Telangana.

Except Telangana, the other five states are ruled by the BJP. The court gave them four weeks to furnish their explanation to petitioner Sanjeev Jha’s contention that the advertisements issued by the state governments did not follow the SC guidelines on government-funded advertisements.

Jha’s lawyer Siddhartha Dave told HT that a committee constituted by the Centre, on the directions of the top court, should be asked to take cognizance of these alleged violations and initiate appropriate proceedings against them.

SC had on May 13, 2015 issued directions including the order asking Centre to constitute a three-member committee “consisting of persons with unimpeachable neutrality and impartiality” to regulate the issue of public advertisements. But a year later it modified its order and said the pictures of Union Ministers, Chief Ministers, Governors and State Ministers can appear in government advertisements.

First Published: Aug 31, 2018 23:56 IST