HC notice to Centre, L-G on AAP govt ads

The Delhi high court on Monday sought response from the Centre and the lieutenant governor on the AAP’s plea challenging an order that asked the party to refund ₹97 crore the Delhi government has spent on advertisements.

Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva issued notice to the Delhi government and Congress leader Ajay Maken on AAP’s plea against the notice demanding payment from it for the money spent by the administration on these advertisements.

LG Anil Baijal had asked the department of information and publicity (DIP) to recover the ₹97 crore spent on certain advertisements from AAP.

The order was issued on recommendations of the Committee on Content Regulation in Government Advertising, which found that the advertisements were used to promote the party instead of the government, violating the Supreme Court’s guidelines.

The AAP also sought setting aside of the findings of the threemember committee, headed by former Chief Election Commissioner BB Tandon and set up by the Union Information and Broadcasting Ministry on the apex court’s directions to address issues related to content regulation in government advertising.

The committee’s order of September 16, 2016 had come on a complaint from Congress leader Ajay Maken who accused Delhi’s AAP government of splurging public money on advertisements.

A report of the Comptroller and Auditor General had also revealed that the Delhi government spent 86% of the total budget for its media campaign celebrating completion of AAP’s one year in power on full-page ads, TV clips and advertorials outside the national capital.