Supreme Court seeks response from Central government, States on PIL to regulate public-funded government ads

The Supreme Court on Monday sought the response of the Central and State governments on a public interest litigation (PIL) petition seeking regulation of public-funded government advertisements [Common Cause of Union of India & Ors.]..A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Hima Kohli issued notice in the PIL filed by NGO Common Cause through advocate Prashant Bhushan. .The PIL raised grievances regarding six specific aspects of government advertising:Publication of advertisements by State governments outside the territorial limits of their respective States;Publication of government advertisements in the form of ‘advertorials’;Publication of government advertisements during/prior to the elections;The appointment process for and functioning of the Committee on Content Regulation of Government Advertisements (CCRGA);Publication of photographs of functionaries on government advertisements for even welfare schemes; andAdvertisements in the name of awareness campaigns.On pan-India ads by State governments, it was argued that the same is done with the 'sole intention and purpose of projecting personalities and promoting particular governments without any attendant public interest'. Since the target audience of such advertisements are actually only the beneficiary-residents of that State, the petitioner contended that "the exercise of rolling out advertisements outside the territory of the state is disproportionate, unreasonable, not need-based, arbitrary and does not amount to obtaining maximum value for the taxpayer’s money.".On publication of advertisement by passing them off as news, the petitioner submitted that it is against all journalistic ethics and therefore give rise to serious constitutional concerns besides raising ethical and moral questions..The plea also contended that advertisements published during the run-up to elections create a highly unequal playing field and create an advantage for the party in power. The petitioner flagged the following issues in this regard:Governments have the tendency to disproportionately increase their publicity budget during their last year in power; Allocation of huge sums of public money by the Central government towards advertisements/publicity in poll-bound States as compared to the allocation in non-poll-bound States; and Such ads have the tendency of being extremely communal and biased..Regarding the CCGRA, the plea pointed out that it is a closed-door body with only recommendatory powers, and that two of its appointees are government employees, and that State-level units of the body have not been formed..It was further contended that the Prime Minister, Chief Ministers as well as other political functionaries with constitutional posts are misusing the leeway given to have their photographs in government ads, for personality projection."The malaise has become such that even rations are being distributed in sacks with photos of Prime Minister. Vaccine certificates are being issued with the photos of the Prime Minister," the plea stated.The plea also raised concerns about the allocation for welfare schemes largely going towards the publicity of the schemes, in violation of an earlier judgment of the top court. "Exceeding the quota also indicates that such expenditure on advertisement is not need-based and it does not amount to using public funds in a manner to obtain maximum value for taxpayers’ money," the PIL said.Therefore, the plea sought regulation and/or prohibition of all such practices. For the three months proceedings all polls, there should be a ban on advertisements, the petitioner contendedFurther, it sought the appointment of CCGRA by a committee consisting of the PM, Chief Justice of India and the Leader of the Opposition, and for the CCGRA to have its own website..[Read order]