Six states to set up Supreme Court-mandated committee to monitor government advertisements

NEW DELHI: While Congress president Sonia Gandhi's request to stop government advertisements in media has attracted sharp criticism from news publications, only six states are setting up the Supreme Court-mandated panel to regulate the content.

In 2015, the Supreme Court had ordered the setting of such a panel in each state. While five of these states — Karnataka, Goa, Manipur, Mizo and Nagaland — are not ruled by Congress, Chhattisgarh under former chief minister Raman Singh had tasked a central panel with the responsibility of regulating the content of its advertisements. The information and Broadcasting ministry, after being instructed by the panel led by former chief election commissioner OP Rawat, had written to all states twice in the last three months. The letter had sought confirmation of the “constitution of a three-member committee to regulate the content of government advertisements”.

ET reviewed the letters which also said if the states are not keen on constituting their own panels, they can vest the authority in the three-member content regulation committee formed by the Centre.


According to the SC guidelines, government advertisement campaigns should “not be directed at promoting political interests of a party”. They also prohibit any government advertisement from mentioning the ruling party by its name, glorifying anyone except the President, Prime Minister or Chief Justice of India, or attacking the views or actions of opposition parties and including any party symbol or logo.

Karnataka had responded to the Centre's call last month by saying it has put in place a committee led by retired IAS officer BN Krishnaiah, journalist Naheed Ataulla and former bureaucrat M Ravikumar. States such as Goa, Mizoram and Manipur also informed the ministry recently that they are in the process of constituting committees. No other state, however, has replied to the ministry's letters yet.

The Rawat-led committee was supposed to meet last month but owing to the COVID-19 spread, it has postponed its meeting. In its next meeting, it is expected to take the matter forward, an official said. The panel comprises former Prasar Bharati member Ashok Kumar Tandon, advertising veteran Ramesh Narayan and additional director general of the Bureau of Communication Maushumi Chakravarty. The panel has also asked the ministry to put the states on a "strict deadline to respond to SC orders or be treated as in contempt of court”.