Supreme Court quashes Madras HC order barring use of living person, ex-CM’s name in govt scheme; slaps ₹10 lakh fine on AIADMK MP

The Supreme Court on Wednesday set aside the Madras High Court order which held that the name of sitting Chief Ministers cannot be used for any government schemes [Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam v Thiru C V Shanmugam and Ors].

A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) BR Gavai and Justices K Vinod Chandran and NV Anjaria also dismissed the writ petition pending before the High Court with a fine of ₹10 lakh.

It also allowed the appeal filed by the State against the High Court order.

"Time and again, we have observed that political battles be settled before the electoral roll and courts should not be used for this. The writ petition was misconceived in law. We are allowing the SLP. We quash the impugned order. The writ petition pending before the High Court is dismissed with costs of ₹10 lakh," the Court ordered.

The Bench reasoned that it failed to understand why the petitioner, an AIADMK MP named CV Shanmugam, was anxious about the Tamil Nadu government scheme with Chief Minister Stalin's name in it, when a similar phenomenon is followed across the country.

If the petitioner was so concerned about the misuse of public funds, he should have challenged all such schemes, the Court stressed.

"The launching of schemes in the name of political leaders is a phenomena which is followed throughout the country….we have a list of 45 schemes that have been floated in the names of various political leaders in TN. We do not wish to refer to those 45 schemes to avoid embarrassment to the parties. When such schemes have been floated with the leaders of all political parties we do not appreciate the anxiety of the petitioner to choose only one party and one leader," the Bench observed.

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 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.

Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi appeared for the Tamil Nadu government today and argued that even earlier, names of several political leaders were used for government schemes.

"There were several schemes in the past where ‘Amma’ [a term fondly used for ex-CM Jayalalitha] was used," he said.

Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi appeared for DMK and said the government scheme is called 'Stalin is with you'.

He said that the Common Cause judgement does not prohibit a scheme from being named after a political leader.

Senior Advocate P Wilson, also appearing for DMK, argued that the petition before the Madras High Court is politically motivated.

Meanwhile, Senior Advocate Maninder Singh appeared for AIADMK and contended that the name of any political leader in the government cannot be used in the schemes.

"This [scheme] is a personal glorification of the Chief Minister," he said.

After considering the case, the Supreme Court noted that Shanmugam had made a representation against the scheme to the Election Commission of India (ECI) but just three days later filed a petition before the High Court.

"We are of the view that the writ petition itself was not only misconceived in law but also an abuse of process of law," the Supreme Court said.

Therefore, it dismissed the plea pending before the High Court and imposed a fine on the AIADMK MP.