Supreme Court: No Legal Bar on Schemes Named After Political Leaders

Supreme Court: The Supreme Court on Wednesday quashed the Madras High Court order that had barred the Tamil Nadu government to use the name, Stalin with You and photos of past chief ministers in several platforms, and expressed the opinion that norms of this sort are observed all over the country.

On Monday, Tamil Nadu government had approached Supreme Court, with an appeal against the High Court order that barred advertisements by any government welfare scheme to use the name of any living person, photographs of former chief ministers and ideological leaders or use any party insignia.

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At the hearing it took place today, the Tamil Nadu government presented its case to the Supreme Court by claiming that such names had been used to launch schemes in different state governments around the country and there exists no law that prevents such occurrence.

DMK additional informed the court that there are no judgments passed on the naming schemes after political leaders in the Supreme Court.

Appearing on behalf of the state, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi explained that the scheme is not new but a digital initiative to allow citizens to avail different welfare schemes.

The Supreme Court inquired by raising doubts on the maintainability of the said original petition in the Madras High Court wherein it noted that the petitioner had just singled out this scheme in challenging the scheme.

“If the petitioner was so concerned, why didn’t he challenge all schemes named after political leaders from all parties?" the court asked.

The bench also observed that it had earlier allowed names, pictures of constitutional office holders such as the Prime Minister, President and Chief Justice to be used in government initiatives.

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“This is a phenomenon followed throughout the country," the court said.

“Don’t use courts to fight political battles," it added.

The Supreme Court also fined the original petitioner, AIADMK functionary Shanmugham, Rs 10 lakh, observing that he had also made attempts to cast aspersions on the Election Commission.

A bench of Chief Justice of India BR Gavai and K Vinod Chandran had last Monday agreed to list the matter this week after senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing on behalf of the state, said it should be urgently listed.

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