Supreme Court bans leaders’ photos in ads, except President, PM, CJI

New Delhi: Observing that publication of government advertisements with photographs of leaders in power leads to “personality cults”, the Supreme Court on Wednesday banned the Centre and states from using photographs in government advertisements of ministers or political leaders, except the President of India, the Prime Minister and Chief Justice of India to glorify its achievements.

A bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Pinaki Chandra Ghose banned the publication of photographs of chief ministers/ministers and governors in advertisements to commemorate a project or an event. The bench permitted advertisements with photographs to mark anniversaries of acknowledged personalities like the Father of the Nation or a departed leader.

The bench, which had earlier appointed a three-member panel in a writ petition filed by the NGO Common Cause seeking guidelines on government advertisements, had accepted its recommendations with some modifications.

It rejected the Centre’s plea that the judiciary should not tread into policy decisions, saying the courts can step in if there is no policy or law in place.

Writing the judgment, Justice Gogoi said, “Publication of the photograph of an individual be a State or party functionary not only has the tendency of associating that particular individual with either the achievement(s) sought to be highlighted or being the architect of the benefits in respect of which information is sought to be percolated.”