Responding to a plea filed by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Sanjeev Jha, the Supreme Court on Friday issued notices to the Centre, the Bhartiya Janta Party(BJP) and the Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Telangana governments.
Except for Telangana, the other five states are ruled by the BJP. The apex court has sought their responses for allegedly violating the apex court's guidelines on the issuance of public advertisements.
The AAP MLA had alleged that BJP-ruled state governments were misusing public money by promoting political personalities through public advertisements in violation of a Supreme Court order.
Jha has sought a direction from the apex court that a committee constituted on this issue by the centre should be asked to take cognisance of the alleged violations and initiate appropriate proceedings against them.
A bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi has given four weeks time to the BJP and the various state governments to file their responses in the matter.
The Supreme Court had on in May 2013, passed a slew of directions including its order which had asked the Centre to constitute a three-member committee "consisting of persons with unimpeachable neutrality and impartiality" to regulate the issue of public advertisements.
The order had in its judgment said that photographs of political leaders accept those of the President, Prime Minister and Chief Justice of India, should not be used in public advertisements. The court had said that putting pictures of leaders infringed on fundamental rights and federal structure.
The Centre and various states had filed pleas in the apex court demanding a review of its judgment following which the top court had modified its previous orders in March 2016 and stated that the pictures of Union Ministers, Chief Ministers, Governors and State Ministers can appear in government advertisements.
(With PTI inputs)
