Ads glorifying Kejriwal continue, Delhi HC told

An application was filed in the Delhi High Court on Monday alleging that the Arvind Kejriwal government continued to issue advertisements aimed at building up the chief minister's image at the expense of taxpayers' money and in violation of a Supreme Court order.

NGO Nyaya Path filed the application in the ongoing petition that sought to restrain advertisements allegedly glorifying Kejriwal and the Aam Aadmi Party.

In May, the Supreme Court had said taxpayers' money cannot be spent to build the image of political leaders.

The application said that on the issue of circle rates, the Delhi government had refused to seek the Lt. Governor's approval, and on the other hand, the Lt. Governor's office said that only the Lt. Governor can take a decision on circle rates for land.

"This clearly indicates that powers of one constitutional authority are being usurped by another constitutional authority on the pretext that seeking approvals from the lt. governor on every matter will lead to inordinate delay.

"Usurping power which are not vested in an authority under the law would ultimately lead to total collapse of rule of law, therefore dealing to constitutional crisis," said the application.

It said the Delhi government issued an advertisement saying "Delhi Sarkar - AAP Ki Sarkar", which not just tried to mislead the people of Delhi at their cost but also "tried to portray other people, group and party critical to the government in a negative manner by stating in advertisements that 'They kept troubling us, while we keep working'".

It asked the court to direct the Delhi government to recover the cost of the advertisements from Kejriwal, who was being glorified.

Earlier, the AAP had told the Delhi High Court that its decision to spend money on advertisements was for the purpose of reaching out to as many people as possible and inform them about the government's policies and citizens' rights.