Plea in Supreme Court challenges Madras High Court bar on use of living persons' names, former CMs' photos in ads

An appeal has been filed before the Supreme Court challenging the Madras High Court's recent direction 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 political party insignia.

The appeal was mentioned today before a Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) BR Gavai and Justice Vinod Chandran. The CJI agreed to list the matter for hearing on Wednesday, August 6.

Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi made the mentioning for an urgent listing of the plea.

"This is a very unusual and urgent case. No scheme of the Government can have the name of the Chief Minister or any political figure," he said.

He questioned why there should be any such ban on the use of such names for social benefit schemes introduced by the government.

The interim order under challenge was passed by a High Court Bench of Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice Sunder Mohan on July 31. The High 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 (DMK's) symbols, in violation of Supreme Court guidelines and the 2014 Government Advertisement (Content Regulation) Guidelines.

The High Court had observed that, according to 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 said.

It further said that including the names of political figures in the title of a government scheme was not allowed.