Not allowing govt to function amounts to judicial overreach: HC

Not giving reasonable opportunity to the authorities to discharge their function would amount to judicial overreach, the Delhi High Court said today.
In an emergent situation, it was open to a socially committed citizen to approach the court in public interest without waiting for the executive to act, but in other cases, reasonable time should be granted to the executive to act on the grievance of a person before he knocks the doors of the court, a high court bench said.
"Assumption, by a writ court, of a function which statutorily vests in the executive, without allowing the executive a reasonable opportunity to discharge the same, would result in judicial overreach, which can be perilously counter-productive in the long run, bound, as it is, to instill in the authorities concerned, a sense of complacency," the bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar said.

The order came as the court disposed of a public interest litigation (PIL) by Delhi resident Ajay Gautam, seeking a ban on the use of photos of persons holding constitutional posts, including the President and the Prime Minister, in private advertisements.
The bench, however, said the cause espoused by him merited consideration but did not have such urgency as would justify cognisance by the court when the Press Council of India (PCI) is already seized of the matter.
The petitioner had arrayed a national daily as a party to the petition and alleged that newspapers or broadcast agencies had offended the standards of journalistic ethics.

The bench, however, said it was not inclined to pass any directions on the grievances against the newspaper as the matter was pending before the PCI.

"We hope and trust, however, that the PCI would dispose of the said proceedings as expeditiously as possible, keeping in view the grievances urged by the petitioner and bearing in mind the purpose and import of the Press Council of India Act and the Emblems and Names (Prevention of Improper Use) Act, 1950," it said.
Regarding the petitioner's grievance against Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) which had issued an advertisement of its product 'JIO' by using the name and photograph of the Prime Minister, the court said it would not be proper to pass any direction as he had not approached any competent authority and the RIL was not made a party.

Central government standing counsel Anil Soni had told the court that as a matter of policy, the government does not prefer to interfere with the working of the media and Norms of Journalists Conduct have been issued by the PCI which empower it to take cognisance of any infraction of these norms by the media.
Citing various newspaper advertisements of private companies, Gautam in his plea had said the use of pictures of the President, the Prime Minister, Governors and Chief Ministers in classified advertisements misguided the public at large.