SC panel gets more time to frame guidelines on govt ads

The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted time till September 30 to a special panel it formed for the submission of a report on framing guidelines to regulate government advertisements.

After finding that the extant guidelines on advertisements did not lay down criteria to prevent misuse of public funds for political ends, the apex court had on April 23 formed the committee comprising N R Madhavan Menon, founder director of Bangalore’s National Law School, T K Vishwanathan, former Lok Sabha secretary general, and senior advocate Ranjit Kumar.

The court had then given it three months time to give a report on the issue. Solicitor General Kumar sought one month’s additional time as the panel could not finalise its recommendations due to paucity of time. 

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for NGO “Common Cause”, contended that the rampant misuse of public funds was still continuing. A bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and S A Bobde, however, observed that they did not find any apparent misuse and allowed the committee time till September 30.

Taking up a PIL, the apex court had then noted that the existing DAVP policy/guidelines did not govern the issues and did not lay down any criteria for the advertisements to qualify for “public purpose”, as opposed to partisan ends and political mileage. 

It saw a need for substantive guidelines to be issued until the legislature enacted a suitable law.