SC ruling on political ads applicable to all states and Union Territories: Centre

New Delhi: The Centre told the Delhi High Court on Monday that the Supreme Court ruling that taxpayers' money cannot be spent to build the image of political leaders was "applicable" to all states and Union Territories including the national capital.

This submission has been made before a bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) which has also told the court that enactment of law on the Content Regulation for Government-Funded Advertisements will take time.

"In so far as petitioner's claim against the government of Delhi regarding violation of the guidelines of the Supreme Court is concerned, this ministry is not empowered to make any comment. It may be mentioned that besides Union Of India, all the state governments/UTs including the government of Delhi, were parties. The Supreme Court has accepted the recommendation of the Committee headed by Dr (Prof) N R Madhava, which, interalia, stated that these guidelines are equally applicable to state governments and its agencies. The state government shall undertake amendments to whatever policies they have in this regard and observe the guidelines strictly in letter and spirit," the Ministry of I&B said.

The Ministry response was given in backdrop of a PIL filed by Congress Leader Ajay Maken who has sought a direction to restrain AAP government from launching its publicity campaign and advertisements reportedly glorifying Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

The court had on July 15 asked the ministry to get instruction on what steps they have taken for implementing of the Government Advertisement (Content Regulation) Guidelines, 2014 in the light of May 13 judgement of the Supreme Court.