Tamil Nadu seeks recall of SC ban on CM's photos in ads

The Tamil Nadu government has moved the Supreme Court seeking the review of its verdict prohibiting the use of photographs of chief ministers in advertisements issued by state governments.

The apex court by its May 13 judgment banned use of the photographs of ministers, chief ministers and governors and only permitted the use of the photographs of the president, prime minister and the chief justice of India in government ads.

The verdict, sought to be revisited by the Tamil Nadu government, said that use of the photographs of any political leader has a tendency of associating that individual with the achievements sought to be highlighted, and has the "potential of developing the personality cult" around a leader. This, the court said, was a "direct antithesis of democratic functioning".

Contesting the verdict, the Tamil Nadu government has said the judgment was against the federal structure of the country's governance which gives parity between the Centre and the states.

Seeking the verdict be set aside, the Tamil Nadu government contended that chief ministers and governors too were constitutional positions and enjoyed executive equivalence in the matters of the state. Thus, their photographs could not be ruled out of the government advertisements issued by the state governments or its agencies.

Describing the verdict as a judicial intrusion into policy-making domain of the executive, the state government asserted that the party in power has the right to carry the chief minister's photograph in a government advertisement focusing on the achievements of the government.

The Tamil Nadu government has said that the Prof. N.R. Madhava Nair Committee, which was asked by the apex court to go onto the matter, recommended photographs of the president, prime minister, governors and chief ministers be allowed in the advertisements.

However, the apex court, while making exception in respect of the president, prime minister and the chief justice of India, excluded use of photographs of chief ministers and governors from the government ads.

The May 13 verdict came on petitions by NGOs Common Cause and Centre for Public INterest Litigation (CPIL), seeking directions to restrain the central and state governments from using public funds on government advertisements that were primarily intended to project individual functionaries of the government or the party in power.