Apex court to frame guidelines to regulate govt advertisements

The Supreme Court on Wednesday decided to frame guidelines to prevent misuse of public funds by the government and its authorities in giving advertisements in newspapers and television for political mileage and set up a committee to look into the issue and file its recommendations.

The apex court said there is a need to distinguish between the advertisements that are part of government messaging and daily business and advertisements that are politically motivated.

‘In these circumstances, conceding that the existing DAVP policy/guidelines do not govern the issues raised in these writ petitions and do not lay down any criteria for the advertisements to qualify for public purpose as opposed to partisan ends and political mileage, there is a need for substantive guidelines to be issued by this court until the legislature enacts a law in this regard,’ a bench headed by CJI P Sathasivam said.