Cont.Pet.(C) 692/2015 in W.P. 13/2003
Contempt Petition against large scale govt. ads for political mileage

Summary :

Common Cause had filed a contempt petition in August 2015 against he State Governments of Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Delhi for publishing publicly-funded advertisements in violation of the letter and spirit of the Apex Court’s guidelines regarding large scale advertisements. The Supreme Court by its order dated May 13, 2015 had banned images of politicians in advertisements published at the taxpayer’s expense. The Court had carved out exceptions for the Prime Minister, President of India and the Chief Justice of India. Subsequent to this order the States of Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh published images of their respective Chief Ministers commemorating various occasions. The Common Cause petition brought these violations to the Court’s notice.

Governments of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal separately filed review petitions against the May 2015 decision of the Apex Court, praying for a stay on the said order pleading that it infringed the fundamental rights and the federal structure. 

On March 19, 2016 the Court disposed of the review petitions and ruled, while modifying its earlier order, that photos of governors, chief ministers and cabinet ministers can also feature in the advertisements by central and state governments published in print media and shown on electronic media to announce various schemes and greet the public on various occasions.

Download :

Review Petition 1879-81 of 2015 Order 18-March-2016
WP 13 of 2003
WP 13 of 2003 Order 23-Apr-2014
WP 13 of 2003 Order 13-May-2015
Contempt Petition (C) 692 of 2015 in WP 13 of 2005
Order dated 28 April 2016