Madras High Court dismisses plea against advertisements

Chennai: Dismissing a plea seeking to direct AIADMK to pay the entire expenses incurred by the state government for advertisements, the Madras high court on Friday held that the prefix “puratchi thalaivi” (revolutionary leader) was a laudatory reference to the CM that cannot be construed as a violation of SC guidelines to states for issuing newspaper advertisements.

The first bench, comprising chief justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and justice T. S. Sivagnanam said, "it is a laudatory reference to the CM and we cannot call this as violation of the guidelines." "In the absence of any cogent materials, we find no ground to exercise jurisdiction in this petition", the bench concluded while dismissing the petition of advocate P. Rathinam who sought to direct the AIADMK to pay the expenses incurred by state for advertisements and register FIR against the director of information and public relations department and others on the basis of representation made on May 28 by advocates and social activists.

Referring to two advertisements where a reference was made to certain schemes of government stating "under the dynamic leadership of Selvi J. Jayalalithaa as Chief Minister" and another one mentioning "Amma’s rule forever", the judges said the advertisements were published on May 26 and the judgement of the Supreme Court was delivered on May 13. "The advertisement is just 13 days after the judgement. It will take some time to appreciate the contents of the judgement and implement it in its true spirit.

“The two advertisements are in too close a proximity of time to the judgment, to go into the details as to what would constitute offensive material in the context of principles laid down in the judgment,” the court held.