The Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down a Madras High Court direction to the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government not to deploy names and photos of current and former chief ministers in welfare programmes. A bench headed by Chief Justice BR Gavai and Judges K Vinod Chandran and NV Anjaria fined AIADMK leader C Ve Shanmugam ₹10 lakh for filing plea in Madras High Court.
The highest court said the plea against mentioning name of CM on Tamil Nadu's welfare schemes was unwarranted and abuse of process of the law.
The Madras High Court on July 31 restrained the Tamil Nadu government from including the name of any living person in any new or rebranded public welfare schemes.
It also prohibited the use of images of erstwhile chief ministers, ideological leaders, or of any DMK symbol, emblem, or flag in promotion schemes advertisements.
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The order was passed by a division bench of Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice Sunder Mohan while hearing a PIL petitioned by Shanmugam.
The MP had challenged the naming and promotion of the government's public outreach programme titled Ungaludan Stalin' (With You, Stalin), alleging that it violated established norms.
The bench has, though, made it clear that the order does not prevent the state from introducing, implementing, or operating any welfare schemes, it confirmed that the restrictions were only for the nomenclature and promotional material relating to such schemes.
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