New Delhi, March 3
After asking the Election Commission
(EC) to place on record relevant material on the “India Shining and Bharat Uday”
campaign of the NDA government last week, the Delhi High Court today directed
the Centre to furnish details about the expenses incurred by it on
advertisements splashed in various newspapers.
The statement on the
advertisement expenses was sought by a Bench of Chief Justice B.C. Patel and Mr
Justice Badar Durez Ahmed during the resumed hearing of two public interest
litigations (PILs), challenging the campaign on the grounds that it was aimed at
promoting the electoral interests of the NDA alliance at the “expense” of the
public ex-chequer.
The court sought the details to determine whether any notice
needed to be issued to the Union Government and other respondents for admission
of the PILs, as it turned down the petitioners’ plea for issuing notices today
without examining the relevant materials.
Besides the Union Government, the
petitioners — the Unemployed Youth Unity Movement (UYUM) and advocate Chanchal
Thakur — had named the Prime Minister, the Finance Minister, the Planning
Commission, the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP), the EC
and the Comptroller and Auditor-General (CAG) as respondents in their
PILs.
When the petitioners’ counsel insisted for issuance of the notices, the
Bench said, “Let us first know about the exact figures of the amount spent by
the government.”
Since the petitioners main plea was for banning the “India
Shining and Bharat Uday” advertisements, the court said it has to be taken into
account that the EC has already banned them after the election code of conduct
has come into force with the announcement of the poll schedule.
Centre’s
standing counsel Sanjay Jain told the court that there was nothing illegal about
making people aware of the developmental programmes of the government as it was
“within its right to inform people about its achievements.”
