UP govt mulling filing review petition against Supreme Court's advertisement ban

Lucknow: After Tamil Nadu, the Uttar Pradesh government is exploring legal options to challenge the Supreme Court order banning chief ministers' photographs on government advertisements.

"There should be parity in federal structure. If pictures of the President and the Prime Minister are allowed at central level, then the same principle should be applicable to states," Additional Advocate General Gaurav Bhatia said.

He said that based on this principle, pictures of the Governor and the Chief Minister should also be allowed.

"As of now, there in vacation in Supreme Court, but we are exploring legal remedies and are preparing a draft petition," Bhatia said.

He said the state was also looking into recommendations of the committee constituted by the apex court on issue.

"The committee has recommended that the states should also be allowed to use photographs of the Governor and the Chief Minister," he said.

The regulations issued by the Supreme Court apply to all media, print, broadcast, billboards and internet.

On May 13, a bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and P C Ghose had stated that publishing photographs of politicians, and associating them with government policy and its achievement, could develop personality cult in the country which was a direct antithesis of democratic functioning and should not be allowed.

With the court permitting only the photographs of the President, the Prime Minister and the CJI in government advertisements, pictures of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and his ministers had to be dropped from government advertisements in media and other public places released thereafter.

The Tamil Nadu government moved the Supreme Court on May 20 for a review of the order. In its review petition, the TN government stated that the judgement had violated the Constitutional right of equality before law.