NEW DELHI : The Supreme Court has banned the use of photos of any politicians other than the Prime Minister in print ads placed by the government. The top court allowed the use of images of the President and the Chief Justice of India, but said, “Even these three personalities will have to approve whether their photos will be there.”
The verdict applies to the frequent ads that are placed by the centre and state governments to publicise schemes.”Photos have the potential of developing personality cult,” said the top court, exempting photos of deceased leaders from its new rules.

Today’s ruling means that Chief Ministers and Governors cannot feature in government ads. The top court has also appointed a committee of three members to ensure that the new guidelines are not violated. “Advertisement materials should be objective and not directed at promoting political interests of ruling party,” the judges said.
In February, the Centre had argued in court that the Supreme Court should not interfere with how the government communicates with the public. It also said that the court was in danger of “pre-censorship”.
Today’s verdict was based on petitions filed by NGOs including one headed by lawyer-activist Prashant Bhushan, seeking rules to  protect taxpayer’s money from being spent on gaining political mileage.
In recent years, acting on Mr Bhushan’s petition, the Supreme Court has cautioned the government to curb excessive spending on publicising its schemes as well as glorifying political leaders with ads placed to mark their birth and death anniversaries.

In February, however, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi argued, “These are matters which should be left to the government and are outside the purview of the courts. The government communicates to the public at large through these advertisements on policy and other matters,” the Attorney General said, adding that all expenses of the Centre are accounted for with the national auditor CAG.

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