The Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL), a non-profit organization, on Tuesday moved the Supreme Court seeking initiation of contempt proceedings against the governments of Delhi and Tamil Nadu for alleged violation of the court’s guidelines on state-funded advertisements.

CPIL, represented by advocate Prashant Bhushan, claimed in the petition that the two governments have shown “wilful disobedience" of the court’s ruling.

In its petition, a copy of which Mint has reviewed, CPIL claimed that the Delhi government allocated ₹ 526 crore for advertisements, as against ₹ 23.7 crore in 2014-15, ₹ 25 crore in 2013-14, ₹ 24.9 crore in 2012-13 and ₹ 27.6 crore in 2011-12.

It alleged that the government was using the money for its “own political interest by glorifying the party in power". The petition also cited a few examples of advertisements issued by the Delhi government, which named chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.

In the case of Tamil Nadu, the petition said the state government issued four advertisements, on 26 May, 30 May, 2 June and 4 June, commemorating four years of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government, which include chief minister J. Jayalalithaa’s photograph.

On 13 May, the apex court had given detailed guidelines to regulate government spending on advertisements to make them more information-centric and less personality-based. It had restricted the use of photographs in such advertisements to those of the president, the prime minister and the chief justice of India.

It had also stated that government advertisements must be objective, politically neutral and should avoid glorifying political personalities. Government advertisements, the court said, should avoid mentioning the ruling party’s name.

The court’s May judgement was the outcome of a public interest litigation filed by not-for-profit body Common Cause. Bhushan was counsel for the body in that case.

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