Centre's panel to see if AAP govt wasting resources on ads

The Delhi High Court today asked a three-member committee appointed on the Supreme Court's direction to check violation of its guidelines with regard to content in government advertising, to examine the charge of wasteful expenditure on advertisements by the Delhi government.

A bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Sangita Dhingra also asked the committee constituted by the Centre to decide in a time-bound manner Congress leader Ajay Maken's representation alleging that the Arvind Kejriwal government is issuing ads in violation of the guidelines.

"The committee will consider and hear both parties and pass the order," the bench said, adding that it will pass a detailed order indicating the time-frame.

The court was hearing four PILs, including one by Maken, seeking to restrain the AAP government from airing publicity campaign and advertisements allegedly glorifying Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) by "wasting public funds".

It asked the committee to decide the issue after Maken's counsel Aman Panwar told the court that only the state governments can appoint their own committee, whereas the advertisements of the Union territories will have to be regulated by the three-member committee of the central government.

Maken, chief of Congress' unit in Delhi, has also sought a direction to restrain the Delhi government from publishing the name of the Delhi Chief Minister in any of its current or future advertisements, that are allegedly in violation of the government Advertisement Guidelines, 2014.

Earlier, the AAP government had told the court that it had set up its own panel to regulate advertisements as per a recent Supreme Court order.

The submission had come in response to the contention made on behalf of the Congress leader that the AAP government was setting up its own panel in violation of the apex court directions.