The Madras High Court recently clarified that advertisements for government welfare schemes must not feature the name of any living individual, photographs of former Chief Ministers and ideological leaders, or display any party insignia..A Bench of Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice Sunder Mohan observed, "...we are inclined to pass an interim order to the effect that while launching and operating government welfare schemes through various advertisements, the name of any living personality, photograph of any former Chief Minister/ideological leaders or party insignia/emblem/flag of respondent No.4 shall not be included.".The Court was hearing a petition by AIADMK Member of Parliament C Ve Shanmugam seeking directions to restrain the State from naming welfare schemes after living political personalities or using their photos, as well as party logos or symbols in promotional materials.It was argued that a new scheme was being launched using the current Chief Minister's name, images of ideological leaders and the ruling party’s symbols, in violation of Supreme Court guidelines and the 2014 Government Advertisement (Content Regulation) Guidelines.On the other hand, the State counsel contended that the documents presented were unauthenticated and not official government publications. He requested time to file an affidavit with the correct material. Further, the ruling party’s counsel claimed that the plea was politically motivated..The Court observed that, as per the Supreme Court's ruling in State of Karnataka v. Common Cause & Others, publishing the photograph of the current Chief Minister is permitted. However, using images of ideological leaders or former Chief Ministers is prima facie contrary to the Court's directives..It further observed that including the names of political figures in the title of a government scheme is not allowed."Further, it would not be permissible to mention the name of the living political personality in the nomenclature of the government scheme. Moreover, using the name of any ruling political party, its insignia/logo/emblem/flag also appears to be prima facie against the directives of the Supreme Court and the Election Commission of India."The Court added that the pendency of the plea would not prevent the Election Commission of India from initiating proceedings based on the petitioner’s complaints.The matter will be heard next on August 13..Senior Advocate Vijay Narayan along with Advocate K Gowthamkumar appeared for the petitioner..Advocate General PS Raman, assisted by Advocates A Edwin Prabakar, K Karthik Jagannath and M Habeen Rahman appeared for the State. Senior Advocate P Wilson and Advocate Richardson Wilson represented the State Election Commission.Advocate Niranjan Rajagopalan for GR Associates, appeared for the Election Commission of India..[Read Order]
