Madras High Court bars use of former CMs’ photos, party symbols in welfare schemes

The Madras High Court has directed the Tamil Nadu government not to use photographs of former chief ministers, ideological leaders and insignia of political parties in the advertisements for welfare schemes, reported Bar and Bench on Saturday.

A bench of Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice Sunder Mohan also barred the government from naming or rebranding schemes after living persons, according to The Indian Express.

The court delivered the order on Thursday while hearing a public interest litigation by All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam MP C Ve Shanmugam.

Shanmugam had sought directions to stop the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government in Tamil Nadu from using Chief Minister MK Stalin’s name in public outreach programmes, such as Ungaludan Stalin (With You, Stalin), and Mudhalvarin Mugavari (chief minister’s Address).

The AIADMK MP claimed this violated Supreme Court guidelines and the Government Advertisement (Content Regulation) Guidelines, 2014.

These government-funded welfare programmes featured “the name of the incumbent chief minister in the nomenclature of the scheme” and included “pictorial representations/photographs of certain ideological leaders and former chief ministers” linked to the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Shanmugam’s counsel, Vijay Narayan, was quoted as telling the High Court by The Indian Express.

On the other hand, the advocate appearing for the Tamil Nadu government told the court that the material presented before the court is...

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