The Supreme Court on Wednesday set aside the Madras High Court verdict of July 31, which banned the use of the names and photographs of Chief Ministers or other political leaders, along with symbols and insignia of political parties, in government welfare schemes.
The Bench of Chief Justice India BR Gavai, Justice K Vinod Chandran and Justice NV Anjaria further allowed the Special Leave Petition filed by the State of Tamil Nadu challenging the High Court verdict.
Terming the writ petition pending before the High Court as ‘misconceived’ in law, the Apex Court dismissed the same with a fine of Rs 10 lakh.
It observed that political battles should be settled before the electoral roll and courts should not be used for this.
The top court of the country said it failed to understand why the petitioner (AIADMK MP CV Shanmugam) was anxious about the Tamil Nadu government scheme with Chief Minister Stalin’s name in it, when a similar phenomenon was followed across the country.
If the petitioner was so concerned about the misuse of public funds, he should have challenged all such schemes, it added.
On July 31, the Bench of Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice Sunder Moha of the Madras High Court passed an interim order, stating that according to the Supreme Court’s ruling in State of Karnataka v. Common Cause & Others, publishing the photograph of the current Chief Minister was permitted. However, using images of ideological leaders or former Chief Ministers was prima facie contrary to the Court’s directives.
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