New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear in open court a batch of petitions seeking review of its landmark judgement barring publication of photos of leaders in official advertisements except those of the President, Prime Minister and the Chief Justice of India. "Application for hearing in open Court is allowed," a bench comprising Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Pinaki Chandra Ghose said.
The bench passed the order after considering the pleas of various states governments in its chamber proceedings. The bench said all the petitions seeking review of the verdict will be tagged and heard together. It had on September 14 issued notice to the centre and the NGO Common Cause, which had filed the original PIL, on review petitions filed by the states.
Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, West Bengal and Assam had also moved the apex court seeking its nod to publish photographs of Chief Ministers on their advertisements. Recently, the apex court had sought response from Centre as to whether it has set up a three-member ombudsman to regulate advertisements issued by various governments and authorities in pursuance of its decision on the issue.
The court's notice had come on an application filed by NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) seeking initiation of contempt proceedings against Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government and AIADMK-run Tamil Nadu dispensation for "disobeying" apex court guidelines on public advertisements.
On May 13, the apex court had passed a slew of directions including the order asking the Centre to constitute a three- member committee "consisting of persons with unimpeachable neutrality and impartiality" to regulate the issue of public advertisements.
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