Top Court issues notice in plea seeking to restrain State Govts from using public funds on advertisements

The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice in a plea seeking to restrain state governments from using public funds on government advertisements.

A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Hima Kohli issued notice after hearing Advocate Prashant Bhushan, who appeared for the petitioner.

The plea stated that public funds are being used in ways that are completely malafide and arbitrary and amount to breach of trust, abuse of office, violation of the directions/guidelines issued by this court and violation of fundamental rights of citizens under Article 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India.

Filed through Common Cause, the Public Interest Litigation plea seeks the following reliefs:

1. Prohibit state governments from publishing advertisements outside the territory of their respective states except when they are doing so to invite stakeholders to the state for business summits/conclave or attract tourism and private investments;
2. Prohibit the publication of government advertisements in the form of advertorials;
3. Prohibit the publication of government advertisements at least 3 months prior to elections;
4. Mandate that the Committee on Content Regulation of Government Advertisements (CCRGA), as directed by the Supreme Court, shall be appointed by a three-member committee comprising of the Prime Minister, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and the Chief Justice of India or, such other persons individually appointed by each of them as their representative;
5. Direct the governments to set up an independent website of the CCRGA which shall consist of all relevant information regarding the working of the committee and such other directions as this Hon’ble Court may deem fit in order to make the CCRGA a truly independent, impartial and a neutral body; and
6. Issue direction prohibiting governments from publishing photographs on government advertisements of elected public functionaries.

Relying on a judgment rendered in 2015 in Common Cause vs. Union of India [W.P. (Civil) No. 13 of 2003] wherein the Top Court had issued several guidelines aimed at regulating government advertisements in order to check the misuse of public funds by central and state governments, the present plea submitted that ever since that judgment was passed, the Respondents have devised new ways and means to misuse public funds on government advertisements.

In the 2015 judgment, Court had appointed a three-member committee to suggest guidelines after conducting an intricate study of all the best practices in public advertisements in different jurisdictions.

The three-member committee had then released a set of exhaustive recommendations on content regulation of government advertisements. It is the petitioner's case that these principles are not being followed.

Case Title: Common Cause vs. Union of India and Ors.