JOIN USThe Supreme Court on Wednesday barred the usage of photographs of top leaders, except that of the President, prime minister and the chief justice of India, in government advertisements.
The apex court observed: “One government advertisement or the other coinciding with some event or occasion is published practically every day. Photographs, therefore, have the potential of developing personality cult and the image of one or a few individuals which is a direct antithesis of democratic functioning.”
Passing directions regulating government advertisements, a bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and P C Ghose directed the Centre to appoint a panel comprising three members of “unimpeachable neutrality and impartiality” as ombudsman to oversee the release of advertisements.
The court also told the Central and state governments to maintain the “concepts of fairness and even dispensation to all media/publishing houses” in giving advertisements.
The apex court allowed publication of photographs of the President, prime minister, and the chief justice of India only after taking their approval.
The bench, however, made another exception in case of publicity materials released in commemoration of anniversaries of acknowledged personalities like Mahatma Gandhi, which could carry the photograph of the departed leader.
The directions were passed by the court after analysing the Centre and states’ responses to the recommendations made by the three-member panel comprising Prof N R Madhava Menon, former director, National Judicial Academy, T K Viswanathan, former secretary-general, Lok Sabha, and Ranjit Kumar, senior advocate.
The panel was set-up by the apex court in 2014 on PILs filed by NGO Common Cause and others.
The court said that the publication of the photograph of an individual, be a state or party functionary, has the tendency of associating that particular individual with the achievement.
Rejecting the Centre’s contention that framing policy was in the executive domain, the bench said it could pass directions under Article 142 of the Constitution when the field was open and uncovered.
“Article 38 and 39 of the Constitution enjoin upon the State a duty to consistently endeavour to achieve social and economic justice to the teeming millions of the country who even today live behind an artificially drawn poverty line. What can be the surer way in the march forward than by ensuring avoidance of unproductive expenditure of public funds,” the bench stated.
The court also said that one single advertisement issued by a Central agency should be enough to commemorate the anniversaries of the few acknowledged and undisputed public figures whose contribution to the national cause cannot raise any dispute or debate.